Parrs Park parkrun

Auckland, North Island

October 28, event #1, 49:46, token 129/150

Parrs Park parkrun is the 12th parkrun for Auckland and the first for the west-side.

I’ve very little knowledge about this part of Auckland aside from watching Outrageous Fortune many years ago.

I’ve only previously been to Henderson and that was in 2011 for the Fight For Life charity boxing (six rugby stars v six league stars, I was eight months pregnant and only there for Liam Messam). To clarify, I was covering it for the Rotorua Daily Post, I didn’t have a thing for Liam Messam.

I digress, I have a feeling that Parrs Park parkrun might be the catalyst for many other people discovering West Auckland.

More importantly, it’s going to be the catalyst for more Westies to discover parkrun.

The parkrun didn’t appear on the map until Friday, but for anyone who was in the facebook group set up to get this event up and running the date was confirmed the week prior.

Parrs Park covers quite a big area, but it also includes a cricket club, football club and Hoana Waititi Marae - I can’t recall any other parkruns with a marae beside the start.

The course is an out and back completed twice. It starts and finishes in an off-leash dog exercise park, so expect to see dogs off-leash.

The usual parkrun dogs rule applies, however, so if you’re joining in with parkrun and you have a dog then your dog must be on a lead.

We started between two trees with the marae to our right and headed towards the houses on the opposite side of the wide open green space.

We followed the path in an anti-clockwise direction, able to see the faster runners disappear into the distance.

The course is on reasonably wide track, mostly hard-packed gravel. With grass beside it there was ample space for passing (on the grass if necessary).

There were a few undulations, which, with the hairpin turns, means this won’t be the fastest course in New Zealand, but that matters little.

With 150 people it felt busy in parts, but sociable too.

I drove up with Rach (we set off at 5am from Rotorua, arriving at 7.35am). I’m not a fast runner at the best of times and long periods of sitting don’t help with that.

I jeffed this parkrun with Helen, it’s been a while since we last saw each other at a parkrun and a run-walk-talk approach is my current favourite when I’m not going all out.

We got to see lots of people we knew as we made out way around and that is what I love about parkrun.

There was plenty of talking at the finish too, I enjoyed a quick chat with Callie, who was barcode scanning, Martin, who was up from Lower Hutt for Armageddon, as well as co-event director David, among others.

Somehow it was past 9.30am by the time Rach and I headed back to the car for the next stage of the day.

There was a coffee cart parked by the start, but we headed to Dear Deer on West Coast Rd. If you’re after a cooked breakfast then this isn’t the place.

There was a small selection of sweet baked goods to choose from so I went for the banana bread and had it toasted. Considering the price of cafe food these days I thought $5.50 was reasonable, especially given the thickness of the slice.

The parkfaff is my favourite part of parkrunday and with the company we shared we didn’t leave until 12pm (two cups of coffee).

Another perfect parkrunday, welcome to the whānau Parrs Park parkrun, here’s to many more wonderful parkrundays.

Need to know

• The parkrun starts and finishes in an off-leash dog exercise area

• Toilets in between the cricket and football car parks

• Plenty of car parking at the park, follow the car park marshal guidance. No parking in the Waterhole Swimming Centre car park.

• Nearest airport: Auckland

• Cafe: Not yet built, there was a coffee cart for the launch but a group of us went to Dear Deer on West Coast Rd

• Launch date: October 28, 2025

Where to find

• Address: Parrs Park, 471-479 West Coast Road, Glen Eden, Auckland 0602.

• email: parrspark@parkrun.com

• Website: https://www.parkrun.co.nz/parrspark/