Tramline Trail

Dogs No Dogs

Features Views · Waterfall

The wooden beams of the tramway can be a bit slick if wet so use caution. Otherwise, a pretty flat trail with only a handful of steps to navigate on the south end.

This literally named trail follows a tramline that was formerly used in the early 1900s to build the Waitakere Dam and now is used to service and maintain the dam and pipeline. From the Waitakere Dam Access Road, descend a concrete stairway to the tramline. The trail to the left is blocked due to unstable cliffs - continue to the right.

From here, the track follows the tramline and pipeline from the base of the Waitakere Dam along a ledge carved into the hillside. Runners will be treated to views of the Waitakere Valley and Waitakere Falls below the dam. This track offers the best view of the falls about a quarter mile in.

Runners will then continue through a small, rough-hewn tunnel that feels more like a goblin passageway than a tram tunnel. Be careful of your footing in the tunnel on the moist boards of the tramline.

Popping out the other side of the tunnel, you'll have traded the expansive valley views for a tunnel of trees. Apart from a small grass clearing with a shelter in the style of a small tram station (oddly placed about halfway in the track), the rest of the track is wooded. The pedestrian portion of the tramway ends at the West Tunnel Mouth Track before the longer tramway tunnel.

Lowland podocarp and broadleaf forest.