19 people turned up on the first official day of spring to enjoy a pleasant walk in the Farm Cove area
near Pakuranga. We left the Bracken soon after 1:30pm and drove to the Pigeon Mountain Reserve on Gills
Rd to start our walk, having met up there with some people from the eastern suburbs.
We started
by walking across an area of rough grass and into a reserve, passing a children's playground and walking
underneath Prince Regent Drive.
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Soon we came on to a footpath that skirted the south side of Wakaaranga Creek. This went on out to
the Tamaki River, and we could look across to Mt Wellington and Point England.
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The track then continued southwards along the Tamaki River, a lovely walk in the afternoon sun with
the tide right in.
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After a short break we turned inland and roadbashed, then rejoined the walkway from Arkley Ave to
Belmere Rise. A further stretch of road bashing brought us to rejoin the reserve at Rapallo Place.
When we arrived back at the car park we climbed to the top of Pigeon Mountain, an easy ten minute walk.
From the summit we have a good view of the Half Moon Bay, Pakuranga and Tamaki areas. Kelvin told us
that Pigeon Mountain was originally three times its present size. Its two craters had been quarried away
completely to provide scoria; the present summit is perched on the top of a precipice that is now fenced
off.
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