One Tree Hill, New Zealand

For a city, Auckland, New Zealand is filled with waterfront and city parks, and in my view One Tree Hill Domain offers the best running opportunities right on your city doorstep. 

One Tree Hill is a massive park, gifted to the people of Auckland over 100 years ago and is best known by the 600 foot volcanic cone rising out of the centre of the park.

The park is a working farm that has plenty of very hard and soft trails running through mature trees, glades and open farmland, right in the middle of the city.

A must visit for any running tourist or trail runner masquerading as a businessman looking to blow out cobwebs after a long flight.

Trail running in 2017

I wonder where my new Salomon trail running shoes will take me this year in New Zealand. Roll on summer.

East coast magic, New Zealand

The Toi Challenge is a annual 18km trail race in the summer around a gorgeous headland near the coastal township of Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. The track covers varied terrain including coastal headlands to remote beaches, ridge running and dense bushland, home to native kiwi and many other birdlife.

With heavy snow covering NZ peaks and passes in August, I went looking for a winter weekend coastal trail run and together with Ben, my go to adventure buddy ( we all have one of those :-) ), we completed the Toi track.

Running the track in reverse from Ohope Beach, with the threat of rain overhead, we bounded off around the headlands, following the clearly marked single trail.

It is wise to read the tides before departure and we had no issues navigating the coast where the track is just the hightide mark. However soon enough we were climbing to the ridgeline and running freely on excellent single track bush along the harbour entrance to Whakatane township.

The track dips into town, but soon enough cardio kicks in as the inland trail climbs steeply up wooden stairways through dense bush with fantail and tui birds happily chirping encouragement along the way. Ben seemed talkative enough, but my lungs were burning as the climb wound it's way ever upward.

It is not all climbing though, with fast down hill sections where one can really let the legs fly and enjoy everything that is good about running trails. 

At about the 2 hour mark we crested the last high point and the sounds and peeps of the open ocean called us down the last free flowing trail to Ohope Beach.

We popped out of the bush just after 11am as the much threatened rain began to pelt down and after a quick change into warm clothes, tucked into a Big Breakfast at a local cafe. Perfect!

South Island magic

New Zealand's South Island is a wondrous place. There are so many cool things to do. I thoroughly recommend swimming with the dolphins in Kaikoura with "Dolphin Encounters". Any concerns I had about jumping into the cold ocean in middle of winter were set aside once I had put on 10 mm of wetsuit, booties and head gear and began to sweat during the promo video. 

After a short trip and equipment check I was super excited and a little wary after slipping off the back of the boat with my snorkeling gear as our group entered the ocean after a pod of dolphins was sighted by our guides. I treaded water for a few moments, finding it bizarre to be in the ocean looking at mountains with snow on them while scanning the swells for dolphins. And then they arrived, dozens of them, racing on swells towards us with their dorsal fins piercing the water, before diving below and around us.

They seem to enjoy making eye contact and I swirled around in circles as they raced around me, coming so close that I tried to reach out, but with a flick of the tail they were gone.

After half an hour of twisting and turning, marveling at the speed and grace of the dolphins, I clambered back onto the boat, not unlike an overweight seal, both stoked and exhausted.   

NZ is a trail running mecca, but variety and experiencing nature in any way is highly recommended. 

After the boat docks at South Bay, consider passing on taking the shuttle van back to the cafe and run back via Whale Bay and Point Kean viewpoint, home to numerous seals and enjoy looking across the bay at mountains rising literally out of the ocean. 

Running for Gold in New Zealand

Waihi Beach, NZ on a gorgeous morning and keen as to get into it.

Running under Pohutukawa trees

Occasionally I like to do an organised event. It is a great place to hang out with like minded folks getting out there and running trails with lots of supporters and locals to cheer you on and even feed you! If I am going to do an event, I try to do a different one as it adds a sense of adventure doing a new course and this time it was "The Nugget" in Waihi, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand an area most well known for it's working gold mine.

The Nugget offers a few options and I chose the trail run and mountain bike combo. Starting on Waihi beach, soon after sunrise, I headed off with about a hundred fit looking individuals, around the coastline trails for over an hour until a climb that never felt like ending, finally topped out on a hilltop at a transition where our mountainbikes were waiting for a further 23 kms of riding.

For some it stopped there and a handover to a buddy, but after a quick change of shoes and a scoff of a banana, I was on my way across private farm country to Waihi's mountain bike trails and the finish at the Martha Gold mine, a massive open cast mine a few steps away from the main street.

This is a quality NZ off road event, I can't believe I haven't already done it, and I will be back. It begins with a hard packed single trail running course around seaside cliffs and gorgeous bays covered with pohutukawa trees followed by a mountain bike with some fast downhills, stream crossings in farmland and then 2 enjoyable sections of undulating purpose built trails in two local forests before following a stream trail back into town and finishing with a loop of the gold mine and a short sprint to the finish. I enjoyed every minute!