Seventeen people took advantage of a lovely day to take part in the Club’s first Sunday afternoon tramp
for 2002, to the Red Hill area on the outskirts of Papakura.
Seven of us left The Bracken as usual
at 1:30pm and met up with four of the others at the corner of Settlement Rd and Redcrest Ave. The remaining
six had misunderstood the instructions and went to the bush reserve off Red Hill Road. John and Paul
went off to find them, using a cellphone, and were able to locate them and asked them to wait for us
as we came through.
We set out along Redcrest Ave and turned into Chrisarda Place and into a reserve
of bush and grass. A track crossed an old ditch and climbed up to the end of Brooke Road. Brooke Road
itself was also a little grunt, and we came out to Red Hill Road where the others were waiting.
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Although the others had taken a walk through the bush reserve off Red Hill Road, they decided to
join the rest of us as we did the loop walk through the lovely native bush to the music of chirping cicadas.
A side track dropped down to Hays Stream, a lovely little stream that would have flowed through the nearby
Hunua Gorge.
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Once back on Red Hill Road we carried on to the Puke Kiwiriki Pa reserve. A five minute bush walk
led past spectacular sandstone bluffs to a clear grassed summit area, with panoramic views of Papakura
and the Manukau Harbour, and the Hunua Gorge and quarry.
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A peaceful afternoon tea break was a far cry from the early 1800s when, as legend puts it, the tribe
occupying the pa was involved in a war with an invading tribe that was so bloody that there weren’t even
twenty people left alive and unhurt.
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About 4:45pm we set off for the final leg of the tramp, a very pleasant roadbash along Settlement
Road. The six people who had left their car at Red Hill Road joined us for this part, having been offered
a ride back afterwards.
We looked back at the pa we had been up, and could see the summit’s broad
slab-like formation. Looking ahead as we descended was the expanse of the Manukau Harbour, with the Waitakere
Ranges to the right and Papakura in the foreground.
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Kath invited us back to her home nearby for a lovely afternoon tea. Most of us went straight home
afterwards, but Lin and John with Rima and Vicki and their friends went to Totara Park. Lin and John
enjoyed cooling off in the free swimming pool there.
COST: $2
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