Yankee Trail
Paekākāriki · 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. The rule-setter’s own wording: “Dogs are welcome in all parts of the park, except for the Te Ara o Tipapa Loop and Dune Swamp Loop. While dogs are not required to be on a lead, please keep them under control and pick up after them at all times”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Yankee Trail
Yankee Trail is a moderate-length walk of 2.5 km, near Paekākāriki in Wellington.
The heritage walk of Queen Elizabeth Park, and the one with a story attached. Greater Wellington calls it 90 minutes return, easy to moderate, and describes it as the trail between the two US Marines memorials: “Retrace the steps of the US Marines who used this track to walk between Camp Mackay and Paekākāriki in 1942 and 1943. A sheltered, undulating track that is an easy to intermediate mountain bike ride.” Around 15,000 Marines were camped on this ground before Guadalcanal and Tarawa, and the track is the route they wore between the two camps. The line mapped here runs the full 2.5 km between the memorials, starting at the US Marine Corps Memorial by the Mackays Crossing entrance and finishing at the stone marking the site of Camp Paekākāriki, so about 5 km and 90 minutes if you walk it there and back, which matches the council’s own timing. Dogs are welcome off lead here so long as they stay under control, which is the rule across almost all of this park. Two tracks are the exception and dogs are not welcome on either: the Te Ara o Tipapa Loop and the Dune Swamp Loop, both on the Mackays Crossing side and both close enough to this one that it is worth learning the names before you set off. The park network joins up in every direction and the signage is better at pointing you onward than at telling you which loop you have wandered onto. Two practical notes. The eastern half threads past the Eventing Wellington cross country ground, so expect horses, and a dog under control means under control around horses in particular. The middle section is where OpenStreetMap stops labelling the track by name and the formed route carries on as part of the inland path network toward Wainui Stream, so follow the ground and the memorial signs rather than a track label on your phone. The one thing to get right before you drive up is the name. Whareroa Farm, across State Highway 1 at the same Mackays Crossing motorway exit, is a different property managed by DOC where no dogs are allowed at all. Queen Elizabeth Park is the western side of the highway. Stay on that side and the off lead rule holds.
Expect easy going, with around 30 m of climb, and takes about 32 min to walk.
Dogs are welcome here. This walk is on the map because Kellie & Jack suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.