Good hard workout tracks near auckland

Mt Pirongia in the Waikato can be used for this if you take the longer routes using the hut at the top to overnight. the top end of the Bell track in the wet will test your resolve. Climb Mt Te Aroha in the Kaimai Mamaku's and run down to Waitewheta on the east west track then back through Wairongamai via cashmores clearing.

My advise is go somewhere without tracks. Join a Possum Control program. I have just spent the afternoon on Mt Ngongotaha just down the road from my place in Rotorua. We are setting up bait lines for a Possum control program later in the year. I was bashing through supplejack and over windfalls all afternoon, following a GPS line and marking it so a track clearing team can clear it later. I find this a really good way to keep fit. It was like I was in the deepest wilderness, except I could hear lawnmowers in the city below.

try some of the longer tracks in thh Hunua ranges. The heights aren't huge, but some tracks are steep and it doesn't take long to get there. Another good thing is lack of people. I recent did a cirular route around Upper Magatawhiri dam, 4hrs walking on a sunday and saw 1 other group of people. You can also access the Hunuas via Warahau regional park on the coastal route to Miranda.

Check out the site aucklandtramping.org.nz for the easy way to find hardish tramps. We did a ten and a half hour one last Saturday. A hard off track in the Warawara a month ago. Fast is fine with them, and sometimes steepish.