Most people see the Parakai-Helensville area as either a place to go for a soak in thermal pools or a small country town on a back route from Auckland to Wellsford and further north. But this time we saw a different aspect of the area - walking along stopbanks alongside the Kaipara River. Eleven of us left The Bracken just after 1:30pm, and we met up with four others at a reserve just before Helensville township itself. While the drivers were taking the cars on to the hot pools at Parakai, we did the short walk around the large grassed reserve skirting the Kaipara River before returning to the main road, crossing a bridge and coming to a farm house on the other side.

The farmer had given us permission to cross his dairy farm and walk along some fairly new stopbanks along the Kaipara River. We could look across the river to Helensville township. A bit further on we skirted a strip of lovely mangrove forest growing out of the grassy foreshore of the river. It could have been pleasant to stroll through this, but a muddy strip separated the stopbank from the forest.

We did a circuit and arrived back at the farmhouse, then roadbashed about a km or two till we crossed a bridge just before the township of Parakai. We had our afternoon tea break before following a short walkway alongside the river to come out at the end of a street behind the hot springs. Five minutes later we were at the Parakai store and our mandatory ice cream stop. About half the group opted for a welcome soak in the thermal waters of Aquatic Park as the daylight turned into darkness, followed by munchies at Westgate about halfway between Parakai and The Bracken. COST: travel $5; hot pools $10