Catchpool Loop
Wainuiomata · Wellington · Loop
We drew and checked this walk ourselves against the authority quoted above before publishing it. The route line comes from official track data. DOC’s own wording: “Department of Conservation, "Dog access in Remutaka Forest Park", read 4 September 2026. Under "Areas where dogs must be kept on a lead at all times" DOC lists "The entire Catchpool Valley from its entrance at Coast Road to the upper car park, including all walks and tracks, picnic and camping areas except for designated ‘dog exercise area’." The same list separately names "McKerrow Track, Clay Ridge Track, Butcher Track, Cattle Ridge Track, Ōrongorongo Track in their entirety." Both legs of this loop are caught, the outward leg as a Catchpool Valley walk and the return leg as the Ōrongorongo Track by name, so the lead stays on for the whole ring. DOC also marks one place nearby where it comes off: "Between the road and Catchpool Stream opposite the visitor centre." Signs mark that area, and it is the only off lead ground in the valley”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Keep them on the lead, watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Catchpool Loop
Near Wainuiomata in Wellington, Catchpool Loop runs 1.6 km as a loop.
Catchpool Valley is the busiest way into Remutaka Forest Park, about 30 km from Wellington off Coast Road, and this is the short walk most people do first. We had it wrong until now. The line on this page used to be 716 m of track that stopped 634 m from where it started, which is not a loop by any reading of the word, and the page still called it one. This is the full ring, 1.68 km, and it comes back to the car park. It runs anticlockwise on the map: the signposted Catchpool Loop track east along the terrace, gaining a little height above the stream, then down onto the Ōrongorongo Track and back west past the visitor centre, with a short link up to where you started. Easy going the whole way, a gentle climb on the outward leg and a steady drop on the return, and it is well formed enough for a pram or a dog that is not keen on scrambling. The lead stays on for all of it, and DOC is unusually specific about that. Its dog access page for the park puts the entire Catchpool Valley on lead, all walks and tracks included, and then names the Ōrongorongo Track in its entirety as well, so both halves of this loop are covered twice. The reason is kiwi: the Remutaka Forest Park Trust has released North Island brown kiwi into the Turere Stream catchment north of the Ōrongorongo Track, roughly 1000 hectares, and that catchment is shut to dogs outright. It is a long way east of this ring and you will not wander into it on a 1.68 km walk, but it is why the lead rule here is enforced rather than decorative. There is one place the lead does come off, and it is on your way back. DOC marks a dog exercise area between the road and Catchpool Stream opposite the visitor centre, signposted at both ends. That is the only off lead ground in the valley, so if your dog has been walking politely for half an hour, that is where it gets paid.
It sits at the easy end and gains roughly 66 m, and takes about 26 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead.
