Walk status: Off-lead
Macleans Park gives you everything you could want in an off-lead dog park. Wide open spaces, bush walks and water. There are a few ways to enter the park, but we chose the main entrance which is on Macleans Road. We headed to the sign which is located near the kids flying fox so I could work out which way we were going. I've included a shot of the zoomed in map so you have a guide of the area.
We headed to the right to do the loop around the park. You can see points marked E on the map are alternative entry points. The walk takes you along well maintained pathways and into small pockets of bush. There are shortcuts through the bush to get to the main track without having to weave around it, but we chose to make the most of it and stick to the pathway rather than shortcutting.
Heading down the first hill and into the bush is where you'll discover the waterhole. Unfortunately George couldn't find an easy way to slide himself into the water here as he doesn't like going into deep water straight away. But for braver dogs who happily go into water without the need for a coaxing with sticks (and even that didn't work this time!) then you'll have no problem getting the dogs to take a dip here, its not deep by any means, George just isn't super confident about getting into water initially. George just stood there barking at me, hoping id find him a solution to get him in. After a few failed attempts, we gave up and carried on the walk.
After exiting the first area of bush you start to head back up hill which gives you a fantastic view of Rangitoto and the beach below. You'll then start to wind down the pathways back down the hill which is where the entrance to the beach is. Unfortunately we were there when the daylight savings rules were in place so couldn't actually visit the beach at the time. This area of the pathway is broken into a few different routes, right to the beach, uphill to continue walking or right to loop back up the hill to near where we had parked. We went left.
This lead us back up the hill, near the batting cages at the school next door. You can choose to continue walking past the batting cages which will lead you back to the road, or we went left into another small bush track which popped us out beside the kids flying fox and we headed back to the car from here.
It's a great park and perfect for doggies. Unfortunately we aren't likely to get here often due to its distance from home, but if you're lucky to live nearby here then definitely give this one a go, and aim to go when your dog can be off-lead on the beach too to stretch out the walk a bit.
We walked around for about 30 minutes or so, but you could make the walk longer by visiting the beach, or choosing to walk some of the other tracks rather than doing the direct loop like we did.
Location: 32 Macleans Road, Bucklands Beach
Things to know:
There are toilets here but located at the beach, not within the park itself
There is a flying fox for the kids
Daylight saving rules apply at the beach - before 10am or after 7pm.
There is no carpark, street parking only