22 people turned up for what has become a perennial favorite of the club - the Coast to Coast Walkway crossing the Auckland isthmus. This 16 kilometre walkway begins at Onehunga Bay and crosses the isthmus via One Tree Hill, Mt Eden and the Auckland Domain  finishing at the Viaduct Basin in downtown Auckland Some of us met at the Bracken at 8am and drove out to Onehunga Bay to meet the rest of the group there. We started our walk soon after 8:30am going up Normans Hill Road to Jellicoe Park.   We had a look at three historical buildings at Jellicoe Park - two replicas of cottages built in 1847 to house Fencible military settlers who defended the city's southern flanks, and a brick block-house being one of ten small forts built in 1860 to resist attack from the Maoris.   From there we walked on to Royal Oak, and had a quick stop at the Baptist church which was holding a garage sale.  The sausage sizzle was especially appetising.     Then on to One Tree Hill Domain. Passing the observatory the walkway followed the route of a road up One Tree Hill that had been planned in the 1880s but had never been formed.  Deciduous trees, bare at this time of the year, lined both sides of the route.   At the start of the road up One Tree Hill, we took a route up through the pasture to the top.   We stopped at the summit to take in the extensive views of the whole of Auckland.   From there we dropped straight down through the grass to the Cornwall Park Tea Kiosk. We literally enjoyed a coffee break. Some of us visited Acacia Cottage, the original home of John Logan Campbell who gave Cornwall Park to the people of Auckland at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Huia Lodge which is now the Cornwall Park Information Centre. We continued on to cross Green Lane Rd and follow Puriri Drive, passing the Auckland Showgrounds to come out at the fountain and statue of John Logan Campbell near Manukau Road.   At this stage Lin had to leave us to go to a church commitment, and the rest of us carried on through to Melville Park and into the grounds of the Auckland College of Education.   The walkway continued to the Owens Road access to Mt Eden. We followed an old Maori track up the side of the hill then continued on to the summit of the highest point on the Auckland isthmus. This made an excellent place for our lunch stop as we once more enjoyed an extensive panorama of the whole of Auckland.   We could see where we came from - Onehunga in the distance, then over One Tree Hill and on through the College of Education grounds. A club member from Hamilton who sometimes comes on our Waikato trips, happened to be on Mt Eden and stopped for a moment to chat to us. She had come up to Auckland with her parents to go to a funeral.   We then carried on down the western side of Mt Eden past the reservoir and Langtons restaurant. After a comfort stop we went on to Clive Road via an access that was open to motor vehicles up until the late 1980s when traffic islands were placed atop to discourage through traffic. That was soon found to be ineffective, so in the end there was no option but to block the road by placing trees in planters across the bottom.   We tried a new option that had been put into the walkway - instead of going down Mountain Road past Auckland Grammar School, we went down Gilgit Rd and into Almorah Rd which is a lovely little street that is almost like going through a tunnel of bush, and crosses a remnant of the original forest over Mt Eden’s lava flows.   One of the residents had built a zoo of corrugated iron elephants.   Our walk carried on under the motorway to rejoin Mountain Rd. We then went on up to the Auckland domain and had another comfort stop by the grand stand. The football fields were well and truly alive with rugby players.   We crossed the sports fields and climbed over Pukekaroa, the site of an old Maori pa, to come to the winter gardens. They were truly winter gardens with all the spring flowers blooming three months ahead of time.

We also had a look at the Tropical House which simulates the equatorial areas of the world.

From there we went on past the tea kiosk and the well-known duck ponds.

We had to go down Lovers Lane instead of the bush track because was closed for maintenance. We then went through Cherry Grove before coming out to onto Stanley Street. From there we walked up to the University of Auckland and had a quick stop at the old Albert Barracks wall which was built in 1846 as part of a large fort for defence against a possible attack from enemy Maori tribes.

From there we carried on through the old student union, cloisters and the fine old clock tower building of the university to come out on Princes Street.

We continued on to Emily Place, pausing to look at the memorial and the branches of the pohutukawa trees spreading out like giant spiders’ legs.

Our home run took us into Customs St and through Queen Elizabeth Square, then past the ferry buildings and Princes Wharf to our finish point at the information centre at Viaduct Harbour, where we arrived about 3pm.

Most of us caught the bus back to either The Bracken for Onehunga to collect out cars, having enjoyed a very interesting tramp across Auckland from west coast to east coast.