Auckland Baptist Tramping Club 2004

Twelve people turned out to explore the parks and reserves of Pukekohe, another place the Club had never been to before. One car load came from The Bracken; everyone else went straight to the pioneer cottage on the corner of East St and Stadium Drive to be there at 2:15pm. We set off, walking past the old Pukekohe Hotel and along the town’s main street, reminiscent of the early 1980s when shops and the hotel were not allowed to open on Sundays. From there we went through to Kiwi Place and the Green Belt, a strip of reserves that follow the Whangapouri Creek through to the main road north. This provided a variety of paths and informal tracks through bush and open park land. The stream was crystal clear, thanks to oxygen-weed and careful management by the local council. A cypress tree growing beside the stream showed its pneumatophores, or special breathing roots. Once on the main road north, we stopped for some icecreamerology at a corner dairy before carrying on under the railway bridge to a large duck pond, with heaps of birds hoping and waiting for that last morsel of our icecreams. Then on through The Glade North connecting to The Glade South via an alleyway. No - not a glade of trees but of hice (houses), but there was one stand of large old trees near the end. Another right-of-way took us past the primary school to East St, then we crossed over and walked up to Rooseville Park. A short side track led to a couple of bluffs of stratified tuff rock. Our afternoon tea break was on top of a reservoir at the summit of Rooseville Park in an open paddock. We had a good 90-degree view of the countryside east to south. Our background music, which we had all the way, came from a large motor racing event held at the Pukekohe Stadium several km away. We then went for a walk through the stand of native bush nearby, with its lush carpet of the gardener’s nightmare, wandering jew. The noise of the cars blocked out any sounds of native birds singing, but did not intrude on our enjoyment of the bush walk.

We were back at the start about 4:30pm, and adjourned to a cafe to rest our feet and exercise our wallets before heading homewards, having enjoyed a lovely walk with plenty of variety.

COST; $6