Pukerua Bay Coastal Track
Pukerua Bay · Wellington
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. Porirua City Council’s own wording: “Porirua City Council Dog Control Bylaw 2021, clause 6.4: "Within Urban Areas, dogs must be controlled on a leash at all times, unless the area is a designated Dog Exercise Areas." Pukerua Bay is a listed Urban Area suburb and this stretch of coast is not a designated exercise area, so dogs walk on lead here. The sandy beach back at the settlement is a separate case: it is an off lead exercise area except between 10am and 7pm from 1 November to 31 March, when dogs are prohibited between the signs. Past about 500 m the coast becomes the Pukerua Bay Scientific Reserve, DOC land where pets are not permitted without DOC permission”. 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 Pukerua Bay Coastal Track
Near Pukerua Bay in Wellington, Pukerua Bay Coastal Track runs 0.5 km.
Pukerua Beach Road runs down to the shore and turns into Ocean Parade, and the seal ends at a small turning area. From there a rough coastal track carries on west along the shore platform, below a steep escarpment of kohekohe and kānuka. It is about 475 metres to a sensible turnaround, so around a kilometre for the return trip. There is no formed surface, no steps and no handrail. It is walking on rock and gravel, and it is worth checking the tide before you set out. Parking is on the street near the road end. There are no toilets and no water at the track itself. Dogs walk on lead. Porirua City Council's Dog Control Bylaw makes Pukerua Bay an Urban Area, where the rule is a leash at all times unless the spot is a designated dog exercise area, and this coast is not one. The sandy beach back at the settlement works differently: it is an off lead exercise area, except that dogs are prohibited between the signs from 10am to 7pm between 1 November and 31 March. Worth knowing which side of the road end you are on. Turn around at about 500 metres. Past that point the coast becomes the Pukerua Bay Scientific Reserve, which the Department of Conservation owns and manages, and DOC's rule is that you cannot take a pet onto conservation land without its permission. The reserve holds lizard populations found almost nowhere else on the mainland. Greater Wellington's management plan for this coast lists uncontrolled dogs as a direct threat to nesting birds, chicks and lizards close to the walking tracks, and little blue penguins nest along the gravel beach. There is no signposted boundary marker in the council's published material, so treat the 500 metre mark as the honest limit rather than a surveyed line. Kellie, who sent this in, estimated the same 500 metres from the road end, and the mapped reserve boundary agrees with her.
Expect easy, near-level going, and takes about 5 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Kellie & Jack suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
