Best Auckland park spots this spring
4 min read
Spring started today. For the next six or seven weeks Auckland's parks do a handful of things they don't do the rest of the year: lambs in the paddocks, blossom that holds about a month if the wind stays off it, pūkeko chicks on legs far too thin to be holding anything up.
It's a rather short schedule though! Turn up at the right park in the wrong fortnight and you've missed the whole thing, or you're three weeks early, which is worse, because you still drove there. Below are five parks that are worth the trip between now and the end of October.
Where to go, and when
Cornwall Park is ideal for Spring in Auckland. The lambs started arriving at the beginning of August and stay until about the middle of September, so right now you're catching the tail end of it. Calves came earlier, mid-July into August.
New lambs spook easily and they're kept on the eastern side of the park, so watch from the Belvedere just south of the café and keep your dog well away. From late September the cherry blossom comes to life for roughly four weeks. Most of those trees sit off Pōhutukawa Drive, which is where the weekend photographers head. There's a quieter line of them along Pūriri Drive.
Full guide to Cornwall ParkA real farm rather than a petting zoo, running down volcanic pasture to the Manukau, and it's completely free. The orphan lambs are fed at 8am and 4pm on weekdays through to the end of September, with an extra feed at noon on the weekend. Times can shift about though!
The downside is that there's only a small car park, grass overflow when it fills, and a fine Saturday can turn into a long walk in.
Full guide to Ambury Regional Park (Te Ara i Tautahi)Our personal favorite! Spring Blossom Valley was planted in 1983 to do exactly one job, and it does it from the middle of September to the end of the month. Magnolias come out at the same time. Entry is free and it's open every day.
The gardens run a cherry blossom watch page, so you can see how far along things are before committing to the drive south. It's also the flattest walking anywhere in the region: wide, sealed, level paths the whole way round, which makes it one of the genuinely easy places to push a pram or a wheelchair.
Full guide to Auckland Botanic GardensThe lake fills with young birds through spring. Ducklings, swan cygnets, and pūkeko chicks. The loop round the water is flat the whole way and takes about half an hour.
Don't feed them. The council asks you not to, bread does them no good at all, and there's been botulism in the water. Fewer ducklings than there used to be, anyway, since the pūkeko numbers are up. Probably the most peaceful walk on this list.
Full guide to Western Springs Lakeside ParkFive thousand roses, a Moreton Bay fig worth the trip on its own, and the harbour sitting underneath it. In September the beds are bare sticks. It catches somebody out every single year.
The roses come in from November and run to March, so that's the best time to go.
Full guide to Dove-Myer Robinson Park (Parnell Rose Gardens)
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