Western Park — Attraction in Waitematā

Large dog-friendly park bordered by Ponsonby, Hepburn, Howe and Hopetown streets. This park is easy to find for newbies. Take your pick of many entrances: several little side-streets off Hepburn St; a small amount of (timed) free parking in Howe St; or pay for parking in Hopetoun Street, and walk down a set of wide, flax/fern-lined steps leading into the park.

Seems to be plenty of parking in Beresford St WEST, down at the northern end of the park (bottom of the hill). This leads in to a children's playground area - no off-leash dogs allowed in this part of the park. If you enter the park here, you can walk south towards the top of the hill. At the top end, near the corner of Ponsonby Road and Hopetoun street, there is a water fountain, with a dog bowl at the base which collects water run-off for your dog; however, the sparrows use this as their bath/grooming station...and possibly toilet. Take your own dog bowl, and use the water from the fountain. It's nice and cold, and it tastes good.

There are public toilets, which are modern, roomy and usually clean - also at the top end, near Ponsonby Road/Hopetoun St corner.

There are some intriguing sunken sculptures, which resemble ancient ruins. There are lots of big trees; but plenty of open space too. Also lots of paved paths so you don't get muddy in winter. There is some seating scattered throughout the park.

The park is usually well-maintained. The grass is usually short; however, there are overgrown and interesting bits here and there, for your dog to investigate.

Some other reviewers wrote "peaceful oasis", "haven surrounded by skyscrapers", "well maintained by council" - something along those lines. We can definitely vouch for the veracity of...

Western Park is one of the most peaceful and relaxing lush open spaces of 8 ha (20 acres) in the Auckland city, right in the center of salubrious suburb Ponsonby.

It was opened in 1871 and considered Auckland's oldest Municipal parkland. It is also one of the three oldest parks in Auckland city, the other two being the Auckland Domain and Albert Park. The park is enriched with verdant vegetation including beautiful established pūriri, tanekaha, karaka, rimu, pōhutukawa and Morton Bay fig trees in the park.

There had been a stream running by the side of this land in ancient times which had been called Tuna-Mau by the local Māori, meaning 'the trapping of eels'.

There is a playground, accessible toilets, fitness equipment, tennis courts, sports fields, drinking fountains, picnic tables and seating. The colourful playground will appeal to kids of all ages, which has two slides for racing, treehouses, swings, a seesaw, balancing features, small trampolines and a flying fox. The 25m slide is one of the highest and longest in Auckland. The lower-level play area features a wheelchair-friendly basket swing and spinning apparatus.

The park is studded with sunken sculptures designed to represent historic Auckland buildings. They were created by famous Auckland sculptor John Radford resembling replicas of three building “ruins” and made of reinforced concrete. The sculptures are popular with climbing children and sets an unusual photo shoot backdrop.

The one-kilometer Western Park Path loop around the park is a very popular short walk among the...

My most favorite park in Auckland Central. It's quite huge with lots of trees which you could do long walks and jog around. And you can do calisthenic workouts as well!

There are two tennis courts, play ground with zip line, work out stations, tables and benches, toilets, water stations, box where you could leave and/or borrow books, etc.

I'd like to separate the workout stations here. We work out here during summer. It's plenty for calisthenic exercises: diff height of pull-up bars, parallel bars, ab plane stuff, monkey bars, balance beams, and slippery wall. It's really a great place for fitness in general.

I work close to this park, so sometimes I would do my sanity walk here. For me, this is the best park in NZ so far.

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