131 Port Rd, Whangarei, 0110
Type of Course – Out and back in two directions
Shoes Required – Road
Things to know
Toilets at the start/finish area, at the Pohe Island skateboard park and back at the Town Basin. Drinking water is available at the start/finish area and at several other locations on the course.
Parking is available in a large, free car park beside the start. Suitable for motorhomes.
Permanently marked.
Forgotten your barcode? Email the run director to reprint.
Nearest showers at Whangarei Aquatic Centre.
Very low risk of cancellation.
AED at the start/finish.
Cafe: Christiez, by the start/finish area
Location of start:
The run starts and finishes under Te Matau A Pohe bridge.
Getting there by public transport
There is no public transport available for this parkrun.
Getting there on foot
From the Town Basin follow the Hatea Loop past Reyburn House for about 1.5 km.
Getting there by road
Drive down Port Rd going past the Okara Centre by about 400m.
Use the free car park on the left hand side next to Te Matau A Pohe Bridge.
Stats
First run: February 13, 2016
Inaugural attendance: 63
Record attendance: 211 (15/02/2020 and 22/02/2020)
Course records
Women: Simone Ackerman 17:37 (17/10/2020)
Men: Luke Clements 15:55 (26/12/2020)
The Story Behind Whangarei parkrun…
Jim Kettlewell, original event director
I was in Noosa, Queensland, looking for a running group to join while I was over there so I googled running in Noosa and up came this thing called parkrun.
I thought it sounded like a great idea and then found out it was all throughout Australia.
I never got to the Noosa event but I came back and was telling my friends at Hatea Harriers what I’d found. Someone said it was in New Zealand.
One guy was going down to North Auckland and doing it on a regular basis.
I looked up parkrun New Zealand and contacted them about starting up a parkrun in Whangarei.
Lian and Noel got back to me and said no one in Whangarei had yet contacted them and that if interested we could go ahead.
I’m president of Hatea Harriers and I talked to the club about parkrun and suggested we start one in Whangarei. It was seen as a good idea and from there we got going.
That was in September and we finally had our first run in February 2016.
As far as Hatea Harriers is concerned parkrun is one of the best things we’ve ever done as a club. It’s brought a lot of people into running.
Athletics New Zealand asked me to speak at their conference about parkrun and how it has impacted us as a running club.
When we started we had no appreciation of what it was going to do. We’ve been getting 200 people on a regular basis. The new friendships we’ve made are amazing.
A lot of people tell us it’s a highlight of their week. To hear that is such a buzz. I never envisaged that when we started.
Before we started council created the Hatea Loop in the basin, it’s a 5km loop and it’s become one of the most popular things the council has ever done, it was the obvious place for us to run.
But we’ve become a victim of our success and we’re now looking at alternative courses because we can get overcrowded.
One feature we have is the bridge (Te Matau o Pohe) which opens for boats. It takes a few minutes and for visitors it’s a highlight when it happens. It could be an issue if you’re looking at a PB that day.