Forrester Park: K9, Forrester Loop and Spooky Forest
Dunedin · Otago · Loop
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. Dunedin City Council’s own wording: “Dunedin City Council Dog Control Policy 2024, section 6.2: “There are some places where dogs must be on a leash and under control. If a public place is not listed in this policy, then the default is that dogs are allowed there on leash and under control.” None of K9, Forrester Loop or Spooky Forest is listed in the policy. Forrester Park appears in Schedule C only as “Forrester Park – Norwood Street” under “Designated dog exercise areas”, and section 7 defines those as the fenced areas: “The Council also has designated dog exercise areas that are safe places to exercise dogs. These are fenced with agility equipment. Dogs must be under control but can be off leash in these areas.” So the off-lead ground at Forrester is the fenced exercise area, and the tracks on the hill above it are on leash by default. Policy read 28 August 2026”. 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 Forrester Park: K9, Forrester Loop and Spooky Forest
Near Dunedin in Otago, Forrester Park: K9, Forrester Loop and Spooky Forest runs 3.5 km as a loop.
A 3.9 km circuit on the hill above Forrester Park, linking the three tracks Amber walks there: K9 in from Norwood Street, Forrester Loop around the playing fields, and Spooky Forest back down through the pines. It is the closest proper hill loop to Normanby, and it starts a two minute walk from the fenced dog exercise area. From the Norwood Street end, K9 climbs onto the north face of Forrester above the football fields and zig zags across the hill. Where it meets Forrester Loop you pick up the gravel track that climbs through the shrubs, circuits the outside of the football playing fields, passes the dog kennel area and rises to the top playing field. From there Spooky Forest is the good bit: a switchback descent through the pines, a couple of small jumps at the bottom, then a gradual climb back to the top car park above the BMX track. A short step across the car park puts you back on K9 for the run out east to Norwood Street. These are mountain bike tracks, all three of them, graded 2 by the council and signposted as such. Bikes come down Spooky Forest fast and the switchbacks are blind, so this is a walk where a lead earns its keep rather than a rule to resent. The council also has current notes on two of them: K9 has quite a bit of mud, blocked drains and some overhanging vegetation, and Spooky Forest is rather wet and slippery with a few trees down. Nothing that stops a walk, but it is a pines-and-mud circuit in the wet, not a dry stroll. On the dog rule, be careful about where the fence is. Forrester Park has a designated dog exercise area off Norwood Street, fenced, with agility equipment and a separate small dog area, and inside that fence your dog can be off leash. The hill tracks are different ground. Dunedin City Council's Dog Control Policy 2024 lists Forrester Park only as that exercise area, and its section 6.2 says any public place the policy does not list is on leash and under control by default. K9, Forrester Loop and Spooky Forest are not listed, so the lead goes on once you leave the fenced area. We told Amber otherwise on 27 August and that was our mistake, not hers.
It sits at the easy end and gains roughly 116 m, and takes about 53 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Amber & Roo suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.