Boundary Road, Hobsonville Point, Auckland, 0618
Type of Course – Out and back
Shoes Required – Road
Things to know
Toilets located down at the wharf and also at the Music Hub off Catalina Bay Drive. There is ample free parking along Launch Rd.
Te Onekiritea Point (Bomb Point) was once the site of New Zealand’s largest Air Force explosives depot.
No showers nearby
Cafe: Fabric Café Bistro, located directly opposite the wharf.
Location of start:
The event starts about 300m past the wooden gate in the Meadow Clearing.
Getting there by public transport
Buses to Launch Rd: 112, 114. Use the Auckland Transport Journey Planner.
Getting there on foot
From bus stop on Launch Rd:
Walk east along Launch Rd, at the bottom of the hill turn right at the roundabout.
To the right of the roundabout is a road that can only be accessed on foot via the side of the gate. Follow the road 300m.
Getting there by road
From the North Shore head southeast on State Highway 18. Exit onto Squadron Dr.
Turn left onto Hobsonville Point Rd, which leads into Hudson Bay Rd. Turn right onto Launch Rd and park on either side.
From central head northwest on State Highway 16. Keep left at the fork to continue onto State Highway 18 andfollow signs for North Shore/Hobsonville Road/32.
Take exit 19A for Hobsonville Road, keep left to continue toward Hobsonville Rd.
Turn right onto Hobsonville Rd and keep right to stay on Hobsonville Rd.
Continue onto Hobsonville Point Rd, which leads into Hudson Bay Rd. Turn right onto Launch Rd and park on either side.
Parking can be found along both sides of Launch Rd, to the left of Boundary Rd (the wharf side), the corner of Launch Rd and Bomb Point Dr and along the northern end of Bomb Point Dr.
Once parked head to the bottom of Launch Rd. At the bottom of the hill turn right at the roundabout where you will find a road that can only be accessed on foot via the side of the gate. The start is at the base of the wooden stairs that lead up the hill.
Stats
First run: May 18, 2019
Inaugural attendance: 239
Record attendance: 311 (01/01/2020)
Course records
Women: Hannah Oldroyd 18:07 (01/02/2020)
Men: Simon Mace 15:39 (01/01/2022)
The story behind Hobsonville Point parkrun…
Scott Arrol, run director
“The event director had been quietly working away on it for quite some time before it got started. It goes back to when Noel and Lian were still country managers, it was probably the last parkrun that they helped get going.
The ED was a walker at Western Springs parkrun, she fell in love with parkrun and wanted to have one out at Hobsonville Point where she lives.
Gary Kelly and I were running together and we’d been talking about getting parkrun going in Albany, then someone mentioned Hobsonville Point and who was getting it started.
The next time we were there we introduced ourselves to her. She’d got to the point where she needed more support.
There were a couple of courses mapped out. Gary and I ran those and said which we preferred. Then a few more people came on board to help get it started.
It’s not on council land. It was government-owned land but then the land was vested into a company and that’s how the development was started.
We had to get their permission and that was more time-consuming than a problem.
It took off right from the outset. The parkrun growth is from young families and other young people living out there. We had big numbers for the first event and it kept on growing.
The ED was the driver of it but I’m sure there would have been parkrun there eventually. She was just so determined.”
While in Hobsonville Point…
Visit the Hobsonville Point Farmers Market in its historic seaplane hangar.
Visit Muriwai’s gannet colony, best seen between August and March.
Got kids? Spend some time at the award-winning Hobsonville Point playground, drive down Buckley Ave.
You’ll have run through it for parkrun but explore Te Onekiritea Point (Bomb Point), once the site of New Zealand’s largest Air Force explosives depot. Walk or cycle the track around the perimeter and look out for the 12 Defence Force munitions bunkers dating back to the Second World War that still dot the landscape today.
Walk the Didsbury Art Trail.