Owairaka Park, 56-60 Owairaka Ave, Mount Albert, Auckland 1025
Type of Course – Out and back in two directions
Shoes Required – Road
Things to know
Owairaka Park has a children’s play area including a flying fox, skatepark and basketball half-courts. There are public toilets by the carpark. Near the parkrun start/finish area is a community garden. Adjacent to the bike path on the course are a BMX pump track and Māra Hūpara, a traditional Maori play area, both only a two minute walk away.
There are 35 spaces in the car park, with additional road parking on Owairaka Ave, Hendon Ave (northern end), Wainwright Ave (off O’Donnell Ave) and other surrounding streets. Motorhomes will have to park on the street.
Forgotten your barcode? Head to Mount Albert Library, open until 6pm on Fridays.
The course is not permanently marked.
Nearest showers at Mount Albert Aquatic Centre on Alberton Ave.
Low risk of cancellation
Owairaka parkrun goes alongside Oakley Creek, the longest stream in the Auckland isthmus and beside the former home of legendary athletics coach Arthur Lydiard.
Cafe: L’Oeuf, 4a Owairaka Ave.
Location of start: The start is at the bottom of Owairaka Park, near the end of Hendon Ave.
Getting there by public transport
The 24R bus goes from Victoria St in the CBD to Owairaka Ave,. Get off the bus at Stop number 8810, right outside the park.
Bus route 66 travels east/west from Pt Chev to Sylvia Park (and vice versa). Get off at Stop 8820 or 8829 on Mt Albert Rd, and walk to the park via Owairaka Ave (10 minutes). Similarly, bus route 670 travels between New Lynn and Otahuhu and stops on Stoddard Rd, Stop 8270, and walk (15 minutes) via Richardson Rd and Owairaka Ave.
The nearest train station is Mt Albert, on the Western Line. Owairaka Park is 2.1km from the train station by foot (warmup distance), via New North Rd, turning left onto Richardson Rd, then left onto Owairaka Ave. Alternatively, the 66 bus is a short walk from the station (see above).
Getting there on foot
The main entrance to Owairaka is at 56-60 Owairaka Ave. Follow the path to the start/finish area at the bottom of the park. This is adjacent to the road end at 209 Hendon Ave. Other points of access close by lead to the bike path across the bridge from the start/finish area, including Wainwright Ave, O’Donnell Ave, Richardson Rd, McGehan Close and Beagle Ave.
Getting there by road
Coming via the motorway from the northwest, north and CBD, come through the Waterview Tunnel on SH20 and take the first exit, Number 19, at Maioro Rd. Turn left onto Maioro Rd, left onto Stoddard Rd, then merge right onto Richardson Rd. Turn right onto Hendon Ave at the next traffic lights and continue to the end of Hendon Ave (or continue to the main park entrance via Hallam St and Owairaka Ave).
Coming via the motorway on SH20 from the southeast, exit at Maioro Rd, Exit 19, then turn right onto Maioro St, then continue as above.
From surrounding suburbs, Owairaka Ave can be accessed from Richardson Rd to the south or Mt Albert Rd in the north.
Stats
First run: October 24, 2020
Inaugural attendance: 209
Record attendance: 209
Course records
Women: Krystyna Knight, 18:56 (18/06/2022)
Men: Paul Martelletti, 14:58 (16/1/2021)
The story behind Owairaka parkrun…
Julie Collard, event director
It’s been a long time coming.
I’m relatively new to parkrun but I heard about it a long time ago. I’m a teacher and I’ve had a run club going since 2014.
A girl who was a very good runner at the school told me about this thing called parkrun. I thought it was a silly name. She said it was free and I was kind of suspicious.
I’ve always been a runner and I’ve been involved with our running club since my daughter was 5. I had belonged to an athletics club when I was a kid.
It was quite a famous club, Owairaka Athletics Club. It has a long history. Olympians Peter Snell and Murray Halberg were from this club and their coach Arthur Lydiard too.
It so happened that the president was getting the club restarted, it was really small so I became a committee member and got involved with coaching.
So I was suspicious of this free thing because not much comes for free.
Then over the years I heard it was for real.
First parkrun
With my family we were getting more involved with running so in January 2017 we went along to Cornwall parkrun and we loved it from day one.
The second week we went to Western Springs and loved that even more so I switched my home run and we’ve been there ever since. After my third or fourth time I volunteered and loved that as well. It was a natural fit.
Right from the beginning I had this idea for Owairaka parkrun. I love choosing different routes and going to new places to explore. My family always complains that I’m always thinking about parkrun courses.
I mentioned about starting a new one up to Pete Kenny, a run director at Western Springs – and committee member at OAC. He said I needed to be a run director, so I’ve been doing that for two years.
I had lots of ideas but the one place I was fixed on was near my home, but it has a car park in the middle of it.
Suddenly this route became available.
Developing the course
It was close to my athletics club and we used it for training a lot, but it was closed for ages because the council were re-doing the path and doing amazing work with the stream.
They’ve built a bridge connecting the creek with the park. All these years there’s been nothing connecting them other than a pipe.
They also put in an underpass under Richardson Rd and that’s opened up the possibility of a longer run without crossing roads.
It opened over a year ago and the club held a fun run.
The start/finish area is across the stream from the former house of Arthur Lydiard. There’s a lot of history there.
It’s a really cool location.
Getting it official
I contacted Noel and Lian and they were very enthusiastic but it was just before they stepped down as country managers and parkrun NZ became under the Asia Pacific umbrella.
We got lost for a while but then Kent Stead became an ambassador.
I know him from Western Springs parkrun, so we got going. He brought his family over and we measured the course together with his wheel. I’m a teacher and it was school holidays so I got on with the paperwork.
There were times when I thought it was going to fall apart due to the funding aspect.
Then we found out all we needed to do was fund a defibrillator. Then Covid hit and everything shut down.
My club was going to buy a defib and we were going to share it but then parkrun said that wouldn’t work, but not to worry as there was an organisation that funds a certain amount of defibs each year. That solved that problem.
There’s been so much encouragement. At Western Springs people have known about it for a while and are always asking about it.
After the defib was sorted I had a bit of paperwork to do and we were approved by parkrun global in early September.
While in Mount Albert…
Visit heritage property Alberton House
Climb Mount Albert
Mount Albert Aquatic Centre wave pool
There are several heritage walks around Mount Albert
Visit Ambury Regional Park