Auckland Baptist Tramping Club HENDERSON   HYPERACTIVE Henderson     Sun 2 May For a fullsize picture click on the thumbnail A wet morning did not deter seven trampers from their plans to tramp the Henderson walkway following the Opanuku Stream and Henderson Creek - and while we were on the tramp the rain held off. We left cars at the start (Border Rd. in Henderson) and the finish (Selwyn Cres. in Te Atatu South). We set out from Border Rd about 2:30pm - the concrete path going in from the path soon gave way to a formed bush track following the Opanuku Stream. In one or two places there were boardwalks. Eventually we came out to open grassed areas and a footbridge across the stream. We were at the start of the Henderson Park stretch. The simplest thing would have been to cut across the playing fields, but we chose to follow the track through a strip of bush alongside the stream - possibly twice the walking distance, but worth every inch of it with the beauty of the trees and the stream. In one place we heard cicadas - they must have decided summer wasn’t to finish! This portion of the walkway finished at the junction of Great North Road. Philip happened to live in the immediate area and knew the place backwards - he added interest to the afternoon’s trip by pointing out various places of historical interest. And one of these was at this spot where the Great North Road crossed Opanuku Stream. We could see the old bridge alongside the present one, but thanks to Philip we were to learn that there were four stages of bridges - the original wooden bridge still had its supports alongside the old bridge, which was built about 1910, and the present bridge was originally only half its present width. We crossed Great North Road and rejoined the stream behind the Westpac Trust building on Alderman Drive. Philip told us that the water wheel we could see opposite was a reduced-scale replica of the water wheel that drove Henderson’s Mill at the turn of the century. The old house we could see on the top of the hill behind used to be the home of the mill’s manager. Some holes in the rocks on the stream bed were what remained of the dam that was constructed to power the 5m water wheel. (The replica is only about 2m). The track continued around what was known as The Delta, following the Opanuku Stream to its junction with the Oratia Stream  then back up Oratia Stream a little way. At the point of the delta, where the two streams join, was the site of the wharf - before the railway was built, Great North Road was little more than a muddy clay track and all the milled timber was transported by boat to Auckland. We crossed a footbridge and walked through part of Tui Glen Motor Camp before following the concrete path skirting Henderson Creek, now a tidal river. When we eventually reached Central Park Drive Philip showed us a small reserve across the road which had the Swan Arch. This was a restoration of the entrance of a tunnel built over a stream by a Mr. Swan who in the early days had left his family in Auckland to sail to Henderson to see his sunset years as a recluse. Returning to the main track we carried on and eventually crossed Central Park Drive. We eventually left the track at Sherwood Ave., a bit past our original finish at Sylvan Cres. None of us moaned at having to do a bit of extra roadbashing to get to where our car was waiting. COST: $2