Dirty Paws

Macleans Park is one of the largest recreation reserves in the Howick area at about 36 ha in size. There’s a great mix of large open grassy spaces and planted gullies. The park is bounded by Macleans College, Eastern Beach and residential dwellings but isn’t fenced so make sure your pup has good recall if you wander near the periphery as it goes close to the road. There’s a small network of trails you can use to do a circuit of the park, it’ll take about 30-40mins to do a full loop.

The area now known as Madills Farm used to be part of a 119 acre dairy farm in the area leased by William Madill. Prior to that the general area was known to the Maori as Waipara ra “duck water” as the area would have been largely raupo swamp where native grey duck lived. Madills Farm is the home of the Eastern Suburbs Football Club and became an off-leash dog exercise area in 2004.

The Orakei basin is a volcanic maar formed after an eruption about 85,000 - 140,000 years ago. At first it was a fresh water lake which was then breached by the sea to form the tidal lagoon which is present today. The trail around the basin is about 4km long and will take about 45-60 mins to complete. It’s about 70% off leash, with the boardwalk section over Orakei creek being on-lead.

The area bounded by Kinross Street, Connell Street, Connaught Street and Portage Road known as Craigavon Park was gifted to the City of Auckland in 1929 by Mrs W.H. (Caughey) Smith on the condition that it is used as a public park. Craigavon sits right in the middle of what once was the Whau portage pathway which was used by The Maori people and later Europeans to carry a waka or boat from one side of the North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) to the other.

Waiatarua Reserve is New Zealand’s biggest urban wetland restoration project covering about 20 hectares. The wetlands started life as a freshwater lake that was transformed by volcanic activity from Maungarie (Mt. Wellington). Snowy loves Waiatarua! There’s a easy flat walk around the wetlands that are completely off leash - it will take about an hour to get around the whole park at a leisurely pace. There’s even a small pond half way around that all the dogs can swim in.

Grey Lynn Park is smack in the middle of Auckland, just 10 minutes out of the city but feels a lot further. It’s a big space that’s a hive of activity during the weekend with all the sports going on. There’s a couple of sports fields, a playground, a skate ramp and a few elevated leafy areas you can just relax and watch the world go by. The only draw back is that it’s mostly on-leash, there’s two relatively small triangular areas between Baildon and Dryden Streets and Dryden and Arnold Streets which are off-leash.

There were once Three Kings standing tall and proud but now Big King is the only left. Te Tātua-a-Riukiuta (a.k.a Big King) is a volcano in the Three Kings suburb. As the name suggests, Three Kings used to have three prominent peaks but all have since been quarried away leaving behind the Big King. Big King Reserve is a large off-leash area at the end of dominion road that caters for a large variety of dog play with both flat and steep terrain.