7 Best Hikes Near Auckland, NZ
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If you’ve already done the short city summit walks, the next tier of Auckland-area hiking is on the Gulf islands, in Coromandel, and in the regional parks north and south of the city. Seven hikes below push past the CBD’s easy 30-minute cones toward genuinely longer days, including one caveat about the Waitākere Ranges every hiker should know before driving out. Base yourself near the ferry terminal, check rates on Booking.com , and rent a car for the ones further out. Our hiking areas in Auckland guide covers the shorter city walks.
Seven hikes at a glance
| Hike | Distance/time | Car needed? |
|---|---|---|
| Rangitoto summit + Motutapu causeway | 7km+ return, half day | No (ferry) |
| Tiritiri Matangi trails | Up to a full day, Wed-Sun | No (ferry) |
| Shakespear Regional Park loop | ~1-2 hrs | Yes, ~40 min drive |
| Long Bay coastal walk | ~1 hr | Yes, ~30 min drive |
| Cathedral Cove walk-in track | ~1 hr return | Yes, ~2.5-3 hrs drive |
| Hot Water Beach coastal walk | ~30-45 min | Yes, ~2.5 hrs drive |
| Waitākere Ranges (rāhui-restricted tracks) | Varies, check status | Yes, ~40-50 min drive |
Extend Rangitoto’s summit walk onto Motutapu
Most visitors do Rangitoto as a straight-out-and-back summit walk after the fullers.co.nz ferry, roughly 7km return, about an hour each way. A causeway links Rangitoto to Motutapu, open farmland and regenerating bush with WWII gun emplacements, so if you’ve got a full day rather than a half day, continuing across the causeway turns a standard ferry hike into a genuinely longer one. Bring your own food and water either way; there’s none for sale on Rangitoto.
Is Tiritiri Matangi good for hiking, or just birdwatching?
Both. The island’s tracks run through forest and along coastline to a working lighthouse, and because it’s predator-free, you’ll hear and see takahē, kōkako, and tīeke at close range while you walk rather than having to seek them out. The ferry runs Wednesday to Sunday only, roughly 80 minutes each way, and books out well ahead in the November-to-April peak, so this is one to schedule before anything else that week.
Two regional parks north of the city
Shakespear Regional Park, at the tip of the Whangaparāoa Peninsula about 40 minutes out, is a pest-free sanctuary with coastal loop trails and three separate swimming bays to break up the walk. Long Bay Regional Park, closer in at about 30 minutes, offers an easier coastal walk with gentler swimming than the West Coast beaches, a reasonable half-day if Coromandel or the Gulf islands feel like too much for one trip.
Coromandel on foot: Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach
Cathedral Cove (Mautohe), about 175-185km and 2.5-3 hours from Auckland, has a roughly hour-long return walk-in track to the sea arch, but it auto-closes during orange or red DOC weather warnings, so check doc.govt.nz the morning of, not the night before. Hot Water Beach, nearby, has an easy dune-and-coastline walk of its own, best combined with digging a pool in the sand within roughly two hours either side of low tide.
Are the Waitākere Ranges tracks actually hikeable?
Partially. A kauri-dieback rāhui has been in force since December 2017, and most interior bush tracks through the Waitākere Ranges are closed by default, with only specific upgraded tracks open and mandatory boot-cleaning stations at their entrances. The West Coast beaches themselves, Piha, Karekare, Muriwai, Bethells, stay open and accessible, it’s the connecting bush hikes between them that are restricted. Always check Auckland Council’s live track-status map for the current list of open tracks before you drive out; it changes as sections reopen or close again.
Book Tiritiri Matangi first if it’s on your list; its limited Wednesday-to-Sunday sailings sell out faster than any car-based hike here will ever require booking.