Totara Park

Every type of recreational interest is catered for within the huge 216 hectares that make up Totara Park, which is one of Manakau's largest. It has been under constant development since Council bought it in 1965. A new playground near the car park is designed to reflect a traditional Kiwi back yard tree hut. Five minutes down a bush track is another larger playground. You can also play tennis, ride your mountain bike, use a bridle trail or go on a bush walk. A free outdoor swimming pool is open from December to April.

Equestrian activities are especially well resourced thanks to the Totara Park Equestrian Centre Charitable Trust, which leases 30 acres of parkland, providing a variety of facilities and activities including riding for the disabled.

A popular walk is the Puhinui Stream walk, linking Totara Park and The Botanic Gardens, and Nathan Homestead, through a stand of genuine native lowland forest, featuring specimens of some 155 plants and often associated birdlife. There are interpretive panels along the way and various track routes allow you to choose the length of your walk. See the PDF.

Formal Functions can take place here as the Homestead 'Beaufords' is beautifully sited within the park. The sturdy and elegant 1930s manor comes with its own formal garden and is especially well suited to weddings, both summer and winter. Those with a keen architectural eye might notice a few design anomalies, in that the back half of the building is a 1920s English Cottage replica, and the 1930s front half is of Neo-Georgian style. The steel windows are re-purposed from St Stephen's Parnell, and date to 1850.

It is rumoured this building also has a split personality and an adventurous spirit, personified during the ownership of Charles and Yvonne Prevost, from 1947 until they divorced in 1952. Mrs Prevost apparently held glamorous and rather rowdy parties here, usually while her husband was out of town. It was Mr Prevost who sold it to Council in 1968. Beaufords is on Auckland Council's Heritage Register but is not on the New Zealand Heritage List.

A community group, Friends of Totara Park, is dedicated to protecting the large piece of south Auckland's precious native bush. They are ecology focused, and often looking for new members.