Queen Elizabeth Park Coastal Track
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 Queen Elizabeth Park Coastal Track
Queen Elizabeth Park Coastal Track is a short walk of 1.6 km, near Paekākāriki in Wellington.
Greater Wellington Regional Council runs Queen Elizabeth Park, and Kāpiti Coast District Council has written the park out of its own dog bylaw, so GWRC is the only authority on this ground. The Coastal Track follows the seaward dunes between the Wellington Road end at Paekākāriki and the beach car park at the Whareroa end, with an entry point at either end, and dogs are not required to be on a lead here so long as they stay under control. Two tracks in the park are the exception and dogs are not welcome on either: Te Ara o Tipapa Loop and Dune Swamp Loop, both over on the Mackays Crossing side. The park network is interconnected, so learn those two names before you set off. This is the last of the natural dunes on the Kāpiti coastline, held together by pingao and spinifex with birds nesting on the ground, and the park asks you to keep to the tracks. Short links drop to the beach along the way, and that is where the rules change: step off park land onto the foreshore at the Paekākāriki end and Kāpiti Coast District Council takes over, requiring a lead from 10am to 7pm between 1 December and the end of daylight saving on the beach from Beach Road to the Wainui Stream Estuary, and a lead at all times on the Ames Street Reserve frontage. To carry on north to Raumati South, GWRC points you along the beach or the Te Ara o Whareroa trail rather than the coast north of Whareroa Beach. The line mapped here is the formed dune track between the two car parks, and the council allows 1 hour 20 minutes for the walk, so give it more time than the mapped distance suggests.
Graded easy, it climbs about 20 m overall, and takes about 20 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.
