Auckland Baptist Tramping Club 2000 A tramp from Grey Lynn to Meola Reef via Westmere and return attracted fourteen people on a rather dull afternoon. The rain kept away most of the time, except for two short showers, and everyone had an interesting time. We started at the Cox’s Creek Reserve off Richmond Rd, and followed the boardwalk alongside the mangrove-lined stream, a lovely sight with a high tide. We had to shelter under the trees in one place from a passing shower. Soon we come out to West End Rd at Cox’s Bay. The high tide made it impossible to walk around the coast to Westmere Reserve, so we had to roadbash West End Rd and Tirotai Cres to get to the tiny Westmere Reserve overlooking the foreshore. Here we had a view of Meola Reef with its mangroves. Another little-know gem was the walk through Lemington Reserve to Meola Rd., a pleasant walk along the edge of Motions Creek. We soon came to the start of Meola Reserve and the original access to Meola Reef, a grass track along the western side of Motions Creek. Despite it being full tide, we were able to walk quite a way along Meola Reef, almost to directly east of the end of Pt Chevalier. Our God created this reef from the lava flow of either Mt Eden or Three Kings thousands of years ago when there were active volcanoes. Small mangrove trees and other intertidal vegetation grew out of the basalt surface. We saw a large flock of South Island pied oystercatchers sitting on the reef - these birds feed on worms and other creatures found in the mudflats at low tide, and roost in flocks on reefs and sandbanks at high tide. If the tide had been out we could have been able to walk a bit further, but unwadeable channels further out would prevent being able to walk to the end of the reef about two-thirds of the way across the harbour towards Birkdale. After our afternoon tea stop at the start of the reef we went back through the Meola Reserve along a fairly new track put in by the Auckland City Council. This went through grazing paddocks with cows, giving a rural atmosphere to the place, then through some bush to come out on Meola Rd. A sudden shower forced us to shelter in the entrance of Motat’s aviation pavilion as we began to walk through to Motions Rd along a driveway. We then followed Motions Rd around the perimeter of the Auckland Zoo, past the zookeepers’ houses and up the hill to the start of Old Mill Rd. When the zoo was first opened earlier in the 20th century, its original entrance was from Old Mill Rd; this entrance is still there but blocked off. In fact the upper part of the zoo property inside the old entrance is a service area closed to visitors to the zoo. We were back at where we left the cars in Richmond Rd at 4:30pm after a quick walk along Wellpark Ave and part of Richmond Rd. COST: $1