The 10-11km end to end walk is more scenic than I expected for a coastal walk so close to the city.
Note: you must do this at low tide for the best experience. 1
This post will give you everything you need to know about the walk in the Milford to Devonport direction.
Proof that I’ve completed the walk.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DETAILS ABOUT THE MILFORD BEACH TO DEVONPORT WALK
Rating?2
With low expectations, this walk faaar exceeded them. This isn’t a coastal walk that on footpaths (it can be if you want it to be). Ideally, you’re on the beach the whole time, getting to see some of the local beaches while hopping over volcanic rocks and below towering cliffs. It’s pretty hectic. The section after Cheltenham Beach to Devonport isn’t too painful either as you make your way to the ferry.
Oh, and Rangitoto Island is in your view most of the time too.
The route really does depend on the tide though (check the tides here), so definitely keep that in mind. At high tide you can’t walk along the beach for the best parts with the cliffs above you which really make the walk awesome.
When3: June 2020
Difficulty4: Medium. Some of the rocky sections get pretty tricky and if you’re lacking confidence due to how slippery they look it can be intimidating. The further out the tide is, the easier the walk is.
Incline5: Unknown. In theory, it’ll be very minimal if you can walk along the coast all the way. Otherwise it’ll be 100 – 200 metres I’d guess. Negligible.
Hike Distance6: I didn’t use Strava for this walk annoyingly. Based on maps.me and other trip reports, the distance is about 10-11km. This also depends on the tides and how much you are able to stay on the coast. If you walk around North Head, that’ll add on a kilometre or two as well.
Hike Duration7: This will vary lots depending on the tides, slipperiness of the rocks, and how many times you stop along the way. Based on the timestamps on the photos I took it took us 3 hours and 50 minutes from the time we got to Milford Beach and arrived at Devonport Ferry terminal. You could definitely do it faster as we spent time having a coffee and hanging out on the rocks. We didn’t go swimming.
MILFORD TO DEVONPORT MAP
Unfortunately, you can’t get this walk on Google maps.
It is available on Maps.me but I couldn’t get the full route in one go, so the map above from here will give you a good idea on how close to the coast you are. It’s pretty simple really, follow the coast as much as possible.
If you have to go up to the roads, check to see what the best route to get back down to the coast is when you can.
HOW TO GET THERE
As it’s an end to end walk, you need to think about your transport of choice beforehand as it’s not going to start and finish at your car.
DRIVING
While you can drive out here, I recommend taking public transport in most cases. Having to park your car in Milford, then catch the bus back to Milford from Devonport is inconvenient. If you’re you’re staying on the North Shore this could be a good idea.
If you’re staying in the CBD, take the public transport option.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
This was the option we took and if you’re staying in the city centre I recommend doing so. Life is easier and you won’t spend all day on public transport. You’ll want to get a HOP card for discounts on public transport if you’re planning on using it a few times.
Bus from Auckland CBD to Milford
From this bus stop next to Victoria Park catch the #82 bus to here on Kitchener Road. Depending on traffic, the bus ride will take 20 – 30 minutes. If you wanted to just walk from Takapuna to Devonport, you get off earlier. Easy!
Ferry from Devonport to Auckland CBD
Once you reach Devonport, have a wander down around town and catch the ferry to the CBD when you’re ready.
MY MILFORD/TAKAPUNA TO DEVONPORT WALK EXPERIENCE
We picked a nice day for the walk considering it was early winter. With blue skies for most of the day, we were all taking our jerseys on and off throughout the day.
The bus ride was super easy, and just a short walk down the road onto Milford Beach where we saw Rangitoto Island in the distance. You’ll have Rangitoto looking at you all day 🙂
We start walking south and as soon as we hit the first section of rocks (I believe they’re volcanic) the walk is already exceeding my expectations. Anything to keep up the variety on a coastal walk is great. The whole area starts to become this reefy/rocky/volcanic terrain until Takapuna Beach.
At times the progress is slow as we bound over the rocks, doing our best not to become a bloody mess. There’s a path that follows the coast between the beach and the beachfront houses which most people were walking on. Booooring. But we decide to join that for a bit, our scrambling pace was slow.
Once we hit Takapuna Beach we stop at Takapuna Beach Cafe for some coffees (I don’t drink coffee but happily use the toilets). As my friends drink their coffees we chill on Takapuna Beach. I ask if they like the coffee and would recommend you stop there. They do!
Takapuna Beach is nice, and there’s never going to be tonnes of people on a winters day during the week. In the summer? It’ll be busy. It’s a long stretch of beach and at the southern end, we can see the start of where the cliffs begin.
We attempt to see if we can sneak around the side of the cliffs to the next section, but already are out of luck with the tides (we didn’t want to get too wet), so walk along Clifton Road into the beautiful St. Leonards Chapel/Park enroute to St Leonards Beach.
This is where the walk does get trickier with the incoming tide.
There’s a few sandy bays along the way, but the majority of the time we were walking on slippery clay and rocks. I can’t recall when low tide, but there wasn’t any sand for us to walk along for much of the route by the time we got there.
Are you super clumsy or not used to longer 10km walks? If so, wait until you’ve got the tides timed perfectly for the walk. One of my friends was a little timid in some sections, but we kept moving. We spotted a few spots where you could take stairs up the cliffs in the bays but continued on as far as we could.
The cliffs are unreal! I guess I can see why the council recommends staying 10 metres away. We definitely were hard against the cliffs at times though.
We were almost at Narrow Neck Beach when we finally got stranded at the final headland. The tide had come in too far and we weren’t keen on wading through the water for 100-200 metres to the beach. We backtracked to the nearest stairs and came up to Hamana Street.
We had a little bit of road walking which in fairness we didn’t mind as we weren’t expecting the walk to take so long. The awesomeness exceeded all expectations.
We walked through Fort Takapuna Reserve which was cool, and then on the way got some hot chips at Bema Takeaways (we all recommend) before wandering Cheltenham Beach.
When we all saw North Head we briefly considered going, but we’d all been there before, so decided to head straight to the ferry and call it an awesome day.
Let me know how your experience on the Milford to Devonport walk is in the comments below or via email jub@churnewzealand.com.
Chur.
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Hey, it’s Jub here. I’m the guy behind Chur New Zealand, helping you have the best time hiking, trekking, walking…whatever you want to call it…in NZ. I’m based in Queenstown and am always out and about exploring trails, old & new. If you have any questions, reach out.
Thank you. Great information
Hey Barbara, glad you found this post useful. Have a great adventure!