A wet morning did not deter nine people from giving Fairy Falls a go, and in fact the sun came out when we were travelling towards the Waitakere Ranges. However the single car that had left The Bracken with the five who met there refused to carry on further when halfway up Mountain Road, having just rendezvoused with the others at the lower end of the Fairy Falls track. Two cars had been left there to ferry people back to the top afterwards. Three of the passengers got out and walked up the road and caught up with Laurie and Phillip, who had stopped when that car did not show up. Two of them bundled into Phillip’s car to go back and collect the others, but as they did so the other car came along - towed by a Good Samaritan in his Land-Rover. We all met up at the carpark on Scenic Drive near the upper end of the Fairy Falls Track. June, who had the broken-down car, was able to call the AA but had to pull out of the tramp to wait for them to get her car going again. The rest of us started the Fairy Falls Track, a well formed and metalled bush track that began to descend steadily.  There were occasional glimpses of Auckland in the distance.

After about half an hour we came to a series of wooden steps at the top of the string of waterfalls and pools that earned its name Fairy Falls. The track crossed the stream just above the largest and lowest waterfall - we could see down to the broad rocky stream bed at the bottom. The track then dropped steadily to the bottom of the falls and across the bed to follow downstream on the other side before crossing again and climbing up to the finish on Mountain Road.

We were driven back to the carpark on Scenic Drive where Laurie had afternoon tea waiting - all set up on the tray of his ute complete with portable cooker, tea and toasted hot cross buns! And it was very nice of Beryl, who lived in the western suburbs, to take the otherwise car-less people back to The Bracken.