Alten Reserve

Alten Reserve, or Constitution Hill (I prefer the latter, sounds much more impressive) is a lovely patch of green linking Symonds Street down to the Beach Road valley floor. Constitution Hill and its steep, zig-​zagging path is perhaps most widely used as a shortcut by university students coming from the east, but it also makes for a lovely spot to just sit and ponder stuff. I like to sit on the bench at the top and look down at the valley floor and imagine it before the land was reclaimed and it was still a part of the harbour (hence ‘Beach’ in Beach Road). Heck, there’s still a sign that says ‘Beach Access’ at the top of the hill! I’ve long maintained that Auckland’s topography gives it wonderful character and Constitution Hill is a case in point. It’s just not like this city to have perfectly flat parks and easy walking routes. The reward is great vistas.

I have a love– hate relationship with this reserve. I love it because its a really good sneaky thoroughfare from the bottom of Beach Road up onto the beginnings of central Symonds Street, so it shaves off a good 10 minutes of travel time going up and around Wellesley St East.
But on the other hand, it is so steep I almost kill myself walking up here. It’s lucky there’s nice seating at the top on Symonds so you can take a breather.
It’s a popular reserve with inner city workers for a lunchtime break, who have offices nearby as you can actually see right down to the harbour on a clear morning. It is a pretty nice view. And there always seems to be ducks hanging out here too, I don’t know why, but that’s sweet cause ducks are cool.