The Kelston Loop – Archibald Park + Brains (Onewherowhero) Park

Estimated reading time: 1 min

View from Archibald Park of the Waitakere Outrigger Canoe Club on the Whau River

Highlights

Distance3km
Duration1 hour, an easy flat walk
ParksArchibald Park, Kelston
Onewherowhero / Brains Park, Kelston
Pathway locationSection 2

This walk loops around the shore of the lower Whau estuary in Archibald Park, providing access to water-based activities and beautiful wetland views. Archibald Park is named after the site of a once-famous brickworks.

Image: Scows loading bricks at Laurie’s Brickyard in about 1900. Photo: CT Spearpoint, c1900. West Auckland Research Centre

The Whau waterway in Archibald Park is alive with history, of regattas and flotilla fun days through the ages. Waka ama paddlers still use this park as a launching spot. In the 1800s cutters and scows came up the river on the tide, to load bricks and ceramics from wharves at New Lynn. Before that, the Whau River was the important part of a portage route for Maori canoes between the Waitemata and Manukau Harbours.

Playgrounds

There is a playground in Brains Park and a fabulous new playground in Archibald Park – check out the opening celebrations!

Directions and route map

 Download printer-friendly of the Kelston Loop Walk (June 2021) 

Estimated reading time: 2 min
File type: Adobe Acrobat PDF
File size: 547KB

Start at the car park by the boat ramp off Beaubank Road, and follow Te Whau Shared Pathway northwards along the river bank.

At the end of the park, turn left and follow the walkway through to Cobham Crescent. Turn Right into Cobham Crescent and follow that road until Kiernan Place. Turn right into Kiernan Place, and then where Kiernan Place turns sharp right, you turn left into a walkway that crosses a Wairau Creek tributary.

Emerge at Aronui Terrace, and turn left into Tamariki Ave. Turn left again into Brains Park, an important sports park, and follow the map to Archibald Road.

Cross Archibald Road diagonally to your left, and finish the loop through Archibald Park by returning in an easterly direction to the car park where you started.

What the locals say

Have some advice you’d like to share? Send us your thoughts and we’ll post the best of them here.

Best selfie spot

Do you have a good selfie spot for this walk? Post it on Instagram with the tag #tewhaupathway and we’ll share it here!

Park information

Find out more about the parks (and where the loos are) on this route from the Auckland Council website.

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