Mount Auckland/Atuanui is a 304m high mountain overlooking the Kaipara Harbour about an hours drive north of Auckland city. The track is not a loop, but more an up-n-over, so we took two cars and left mine at the SH16 end and took Roger’s up to the start at the carpark on Kaipara Hills Rd.

Everyone complains the SH16 entrance is hard to find, but no one posts a picture of it, so here it is.

DoC description (of 2km north of the the Glorit-Kaipara Hills Rd turnoff) is pretty accurate. The sign must have been erected since the Google car went through as it doesn’t show on StreetView and makes it reasonable easy to spot now.

The track climbs up past an old airstrip, through some farmland, and into some very nice bush before reaching the summit with its viewing platform. The weather was overcast and showery, so although the views were good they weren’t great and haven’t photographed well. Had lunch sheltering from a shower under a big Puriri tree, and then out and down through farmland to where I’d left my car.

We collected Roger’s car and headed off to the Hallertau brewery to sample all their brews.

Brendan and Jess arranged to catch up with us at Galbraith’s on New Year’s Day on their visit back to New Zealand. And they introduced us to their new baby Amelia. She’s as destructive with beer mats as me.