Shakespear Regional Park
Auckland has quite a few public transport ferries around the northern bay, quite a few of which have popped up in this blog. But one I have been wanting to take for months, but haven’t before managed to, is the Gulf Harbour ferry up to the Whangaparāoa peninsula. This is because the ferry for some reason only runs on weekdays, and as such I haven’t found the time for it before now with classes ending. The peninsula itself is quite a funny looking thing, snaking its way 15 kilometres out into the sea, at multiple points being thinner than a kilometer before ending in quite a large bulb which was also the goal of my trip, Shakespear Regional Park.
For once, I did not leave my departure for the ferry to the absolute last moment, and so only had to run a little. The ferry ride itself was very enjoyable, an hour of sun and ocean spray with Rangitoto in all its glory. Shared the top deck with a kind lady, Elizabeth, and we had a nice chat on the way up north. Had a beautiful view of the lighthouse as we passed by on our way north.
Rangitoto lighthouse at McKenzie Bay
When we reached Gulf Harbour, Elizabeth was kind enough to offer me a ride up to the park, and on the way we got classic New Zealand pies. Arriving in at the park, I suddenly found out that the top third of the peninsula tip was a military base, which threw a bit of a spanner into my plan of walking around the shore. However, there was a sign saying that you were allowed to walk the foreshore, as long as they didn’t have live fire exercises over it. Which it turned out they were having, signalled by a flag which I came upon after a few hundred meters walk (was still very far to the perilous areas so were never in any danger).
So with that original plan out of the question I instead turned to the main walk around the actual park. Which turned out to be a really nice one, taking me through a thick forest along a stream with o so many birds, crooked trees and a lovely waterfall. Then up onto pasture land with some fantastic views and a lot of Pukeko, a colourful purple swamphen with red beak and a bit of an attitude. Then down into another thicket where I think I saw a parrot, at least saw a very bright green and red flash of a bird flying of the path.
With this I had crossed to the end of the peninsula and found my self at Pink Beach for some lunch. Then I again tried to work my way around the foreshore, but was again stumped, this time by the tide rolling in. This made a passage require some significant climbing, and as I was alone and the tide had another meter left I made the mature choice to turn back.
A very interesting rock formation on the foreshore by Pink Beach, with the point I had to turn back at visible on the left
Instead, I walked through the continuing walking through the empty pasture land until I reached Shakespear Beach. There I did some ferry schedule checking and found I had just enough time to visit the last cliff point of the park, before then catching the bus back to the ferry.
On the ferry back I got some absolutely stunning light shows in the sky with the setting sun among raged clouds over the water. And on top of that I briefly spotted (what I’m pretty sure was) a penguin in the water which then dove into the depth. A really cool finishing moment to a long but truly wonderful day.
