Dogs off leash in Auckland?

[MichelleD]

Hi guys,
Well its 2 weeks until I move to Auckland, and I am struggling to decide on where to live. I will be working at the University of Auckland and as an avid kitesurfer would love to be close to a kiting spot.
With two energetic dogs in tow, I would love some information about good places to live with access to parks/beaches for the dogs to run around in.
From reading around it seems that some beaches allow dogs for part of the year, but this is still not that clear to me.
How about open spaces, are there dog friendly parks around central Auckland where my girls can run or is it all on lead rules?
I'm happy to consider the North Shore or anywhere else with an easy commute to the CBD.
Anybody out there with dogs who can advise?
Thanks so much,
Michelle

[BkyMonster]

The local council sites should list all the dog exercise areas as well as when/if the beaches allow dogs.
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/
They will also have information on registering dogs, responsible owner discounts and similar.

[Kerry and David]

Hi Michelle,

We live in Red Beach which is 35 minutes drive (off peak) to CBD, we do have a good bus service and that is how some of our friends commute to work (they purchase a month pass).

The rule to dogs on the beach up here is during Daylight Saving Hours they are not allowed on the beach between 9am and 7pm but to be honest most days it would be too hot for our dog to be walked in the middle part of the day anyway.
We do have the Red Beach Estuary which meets with the Southern End of Orewa Beach which has a grassed area, beach and water where dogs can be walked anytime of day.
After the clocks change there is nor restriction.

I may be wrong but I believe the North Shore may have slightly different restricted hours (maybe 10am - 7pm).

Dogs are allowed of the leash so long as they are under control.

There are a number of parks that we go to but we just have to remember that dogs are not allowed within 10 metres of a childs playground (ok to walk past but not stop).

With regards to good beaches for Kitesurfing, Orewa is a beautiful beach which is popular on windy days with the Kitesurfers, we loved watching them yesterday.

If you want to be a bit closer to the city, Albany has a great park and ride facility or maybe Devonport where you can catch the ferry over.

Good luck with the move

Regards

Kerry

[gil]

Hi MichelleD,
We are in Bucklands Beach, a slim peninsula with Eastern beach on the other side from us. Eastern Beach seems to have a lot of kitesurfers, so it's good from that point of view. There are some lovely reserves here where you can go off leash all day - Macleans Reserve and the Musick Point tip of Big Bucklands Beach right up to the the golf course.
Eastern Beach and Little Bucklands Beach are restricted during daylight saving (i.e. off leash pre-9.00 a.m. and post 7.00 p.m only) so of course in the winter months, you can go off leash any time.

The ferry goes from just down the road at Half Moon Bay to the CBD, a 35 minute trip. If you drive, you should allow closer to 50 minutes, sometimes as much as 1 hour and 10. I think the bus takes about an hour.

Gil

[MichelleD]

Perfect, thank you so much for the information.
Its great to find out first hand about different areas to live that are still commutable.