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Only a few minutes from Silverdale, the road into Stillwater slips away from the busy Hibiscus Coast and ends beside one of the area’s least-known coastal walks.
The open northern section of the Ōkura Bush Walkway begins at the start of Duck Creek Road and follows farmland, beach and coastal bush to Dacre Cottage at Karepiro Bay. The return walk is about 8.5km and takes around three to three-and-a-half hours, depending on conditions and how long is spent exploring.
It is important to approach from Stillwater. The southern section between the Haigh Road entrance and Karepiro Bay remains closed to protect kauri from dieback disease.
The walk rewards a little effort. After crossing farmland, the track rises through regenerating coastal forest, with nīkau, tree ferns and pōhutukawa, before dropping towards the bay. Dacre Cottage appears almost unexpectedly beside the beach, its small brick walls standing apart from the modern city beyond the hills.
Built about 1855, the cottage was part of Captain Ranulph Dacre’s Weiti property. It later fell into disrepair before volunteers dismantled and rebuilt it, completing the restoration in 1984. The Dacre Cottage Management Committee continues to care for the building and grounds.
The wider landscape carries an even older story. The Ōkura Bush and Shell Barriers Biodiversity Focus Area covers 164 hectares, linking mature and regenerating forest with streams, saltmarsh, mangroves, intertidal flats and the Long Bay-Ōkura Marine Reserve.
Near the mouth of the Weiti River are cheniers, ridges formed from shells pushed together by waves and tides. These unusual barriers record changes in sea level stretching back thousands of years. They also provide high-tide roosts for native and migratory shorebirds.
Tūturiwhatu, tōrea pango, kuaka, poaka, pāteke and kāruhiruhi have all been recorded around the river mouth. Friends of Okura Bush reported more than 100 kuaka and about 200 tōrea using the chenier earlier this year.
Keeping this apparently wild place healthy takes steady work. Friends of Okura Bush volunteers trap rats, stoats, weasels, possums and other predators, remove invasive weeds, plant native species and monitor birds. In the year to July 2025, volunteers contributed more than 428 hours in parks and reserves. New traps were also installed around Karepiro wetland and along the Weiti Bay cliffs to protect birdlife and īnanga spawning habitat.
Visitors can help by staying on marked tracks, leaving gates as they find them and keeping well away from nesting birds. Dogs are not permitted. After rain, expect mud and slippery sections.
The secret of Ōkura is not simply that such a place survives beside Auckland. It is that a network of volunteers is quietly making sure it continues to do so.
