Taranaki Trails

Summer Trails Series: Pukekura Park

Posted on 3 December 2022

Often described as the jewel in New Plymouth’s crown, Pukekura Park covers 52ha (128 acres) right in the heart of the city and is one of New Zealand’s premier botanical gardens. There’s about 20km of trails inside it, ranging from rugged undulating single track, so easy flat paved or gravel tracks.

More more information, including a map of all the trails in the park go to New Plymouth District Council’s website.

A popular route with locals is the Pukekura Park circuit, which is about a 5.5km and follows the perimeter of the Park and some of the best single track. The locals call it the “Sub-30 track” – as there are so many hills, if you can run it in under 30 minutes, you can hold your head high among the best of the local trail runners. You can find the route on Find My Adventure here.