Cascades Shared Path, Pakuranga

So many places to explore here! The full Shared Path is extensive (as you can see from AT’s map) – we explored a small part, and enjoyed it so much, we’ll be back to check out more.

The area we covered was between De Quincy Terrace (off Aviemore Drive) and the Homestead Café by the Howick Historic Village on Bells Road.

Parking at Aviemore Drive (a residential street) gives you a nice wee ride to the Homestead Café, where you can then stop for refreshments and a play at the nearby marble run. The marble run is a super cool area – its the only outdoor marble run I’ve found in Auckland so far. Pro tip – get a big bag of the standard size marbles from the dollar store to take with you – you’ll probably lose a few, and when others arrive without marbles (like we did!), the kids love to share so everyone can play.

There is of course also lots of parking at the Homestead Cafe area if you prefer.

The ride itself was very pleasant, great swathes of green grass with the path meandering through. It is a shared path, and quite narrow, so you need to watch out of walkers and other cyclists coming. The visibility is great, so that’s easy enough to do.

To get to the cafe from where we started we did have to go up one short steep section, but everyone made it up easily enough.

The Rotary Centennial Bike Trail starts near the cafe, and is an interesting looking unpaved track. Looked like it would be lots of fun, but we didn’t explore much of it as it was very muddy from recent rain when we visited.

There are also extensive paths out from the marble run, lots of loops and tree-lined paths to explore, so plenty to keep the kids moving and interesting, even within a small area.

There is a huge area that can be explored, and is well worth the visit. One of the best things is that whether you’re looking for a short ride just for the kids, a long ride for the whole family or something in-between, you can find it here.