A glorious end-of-summer afternoon brought out 33 people to walk around part of Shakespear Regional Park
at the end of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, with an extra three people joining us for lovely BBQ afterwards.
We left The Bracken about 1:45pm to travel to the Te Haruhi Bay carpark near the far end of the
regional park, where we met a few people from the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast. Our walk was to be
the red-markered Shakespear Track, a two hour loop climbing up the headland to the east of the bay and
along the clifftops at the tip of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, then climbing to the summit lookout before
dropping down back to Te Haruhi Bay.
We stopped to group up at the first lookout, above Te Haruhi
Bay, before carrying on through open pasture, the terrain of our whole walk, to the eastern end of the
peninsula. There were terrific views out to Tiritiri Matangi Island, which the Club visited in July last
year. We grouped up again at the lowest point on the clifftop section, at the start of a side track leading
down to the rocky coast below. A solitary shag was perched on the branches of a pohutukawa tree overlooking
the coast.
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Afterwards there was a steady climb up to the ridge bordering the Whangaparaoa military camp reserve.
This largely scrub-covered area is at present used by the navy for live firing practice, and like all
military land is strictly out-of-bounds to public access. Ahead was the summit lookout, a viewing platform
on a clump of vegetation in otherwise-bare grass pasture.
We had a wonderful 360º panorama of
the Shakespear Park, the rest of Whangaparaoa Peninsula, Kawau island and the Mahurangi coast to the
north, Auckland city and Rangitoto to the south, and Tiritiri Matangi Island to the east with Moehau
in the distance. This was our setting for our afternoon tea stop, then it was a quick fifteen minute
drop back to Te Haruhi Bay.
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A high tide and a balmy afternoon made for a very refreshing swim at Te Haruhi Bay. Paul then set
up his portable barbeque, and we had a wonderful relaxing time of fellowship around a potluck BBQ meal.
It was almost 7pm when we were finally packed and on our way home to central Auckland.
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