Bookings for our walk and accommodation packages and for the 5-day Te Ara Hura walk adventure are now open!

Also this month …

• New walks which will bring you mindfulness and joy…as well as a generous helping of Waiheke red wine.
• Important dates for you.  We answer the most common questions – when can we see the full programme and when can we book walks!
• Have you heard about “awe walks”?  A new worldwide trend that we love and embrace this year.

Our first package runs from Wednesday 10th – Friday 12th November and includes walks to Passage Rock Vineyard and Mudbrick as well as offering one of our “Best of Te Ara Hura” 10km walks (the one with the rope-assisted hill)! Click here to book.

Our second package runs from the Wednesday 17th – Friday 19th November and includes hikes to Batch vineyard, Mudbrick and a beautiful walk through the Whakanewha Regional Park from eclectic Rocky Bay. Click here to book.

Each of our Te Ara Hura walks follow the 100km track around Waiheke in 5 consecutive days and each offer the same route but have different dates and start times.

For Wed 10th to Sunday 14th starting at 7.30am each day, click here to join the waitlist.

For Monday 15th to Friday 19th starting at 9am each day, click here to join the waitlist.

For more information CLICK HERE

Fullers360, Treescape and Make Tracks are our major sponsors and all contribute to the Waiheke Walking Festival Experience.  Fullers360’s ferries bring you to our motu and they also offer a discount on travel to our walkers. Treescape work on our Island’s vegetation, regeneration and restoration – nothing like an even more beautiful Island!    Make Tracks open up private land access and give a wider walk experience.

Also, thank you to our named walk sponsors – we have some pretty spectacular new walks – this year we have 10 named walk sponsors and we thank them for their support of the Festival. More on these next month…

Booking dates for this year’s Waiheke Walking Festival.

It’s always good to know when our programme is released and when you can book – so here are the important dates.

10 September: This year’s programme goes live! You can view walks on the website or download and print our A4 brochure – both show all the walks for this year’s Festival. You will be able to start planning and working out your must-walks for 2021.

17 September: Bookings open up for Patrons and Friends of the Festival

1 October: General public can book walks

5-21 November: Waiheke Walking Festival is on!

Our Festival Friends are growing

Our circle of Friends has grown wider since the end of last year’s Festival, with only 25 Friends memberships now remaining for this year’s 2021 Waiheke Walking Festival. Why would you join to become a Friend? You get early access booking opportunities and additional walking spots.

You also get to feel pretty chuffed that you’ve supported the Waiheke Walking Festival as your $100 donation works on keeping our Festival growing and walking.  Without this support, we couldn’t deliver the same experience to you – our walking guest!  So become a Friend of the Festival today, just CLICK HERE

Come Red Wine Rambling with us.

Waiheke Island is known for its red, deep, silky spicy Syrah and its dense, berry and elegantly structured Bordeaux. That’s all of our wine words up in one sentence!

This year we have introduced the Red Wine Ramble with red wine tastings galore! Starting at Onetangi beach, we’ll walk to Obsidian (and savour the mighty and awarded The Mayor and The Obsidian amongst others).  We’ll then travel through private land to Stonyridge for a tantalising flight of Waiheke red wine and finish at Te Motu for a tasting of their Te Motu flagship wine as well as their other signature Waiheke reds. Topped off with platters at Stonyridge and a generous giant cheeseboard to feast on at Te Motu with informed curated tastings, you’ll be working out your taste buds and legs on this glorious walk.

Awe – a great word to use with Waiheke Walking Festival. 

Awe walks – a popular phrase that resonates with today’s walkers who are after mindfulness and reconnection with the earth, experienced while enjoying walking.

Can you remember your eyes following the greenness of the hills, the wildness of the ocean – your breath catching and for a minute all was right in the world. You felt calm. You felt inspired. You were in awe.

At this November’s Waiheke Walking Festival there will be a plethora of ‘awe’ walks to inspire, encourage movement and boost mindfulness no matter what your walk of life.  We have Waiheke’s well recognised Mel Burdett and Del Morgan Coghlan’s Laughter walk working on mindfulness and release, Pete Rees’ photography masterclass/walk focusing on seascapes and composition and being in the moment and Gabrielle Young brings us on a journey with her Shinrin-Yoku forest bathing in Whakanewha and….well …incredible walks from and to truly beautiful places.

These are faves – we would hear all about it if we didn’t feature these walks again! 

This year we still have the ever popular Awaawaroa Coastal Classic walk which includes being guided along the diverse and stunning coast around Woodside Bay and the Eco Village with a fabulous finish at Poderi Crisci for their iconic long lunch.

Also, this is the second year for our Storytelling walks as they proved so popular last year; well known locals sharing their memories and stories of Waiheke, as you walk with audio headsets through gorgeous bush and vistas and Rangihoua … it’s probably our quietest walk of the Festival!