Auckland Baptist Tramping Club 2001 A first for the Club - a remembrance of Easter in the form of a day tramp on Easter Saturday. The Club had planned a tramp to the Far North for Easter, but that fell through because of problems in getting permission to cross private land in the area. In its place a harder tramp in the Kaimanawa Ranges was substituted, but for those not wanting a tough tramp and for those staying home over Easter, a special day trip was organised that included several stops to reflect on the real meaning of Easter - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Nineteen people came along on a gloriously sunny day. One carload of four people left The Bracken at 8am to meet up with the others at Windsor Park Baptist Church at 8:45am. From there we drove to Tawharanui Regional Park, the four people from The Bracken transferring to Phillip’s van for a 10am start. The tramp was a circuit that included the North Coast Track and the South Coast Track. We set out along the North Coast Track which climbed gradually through farm land with fantastic views of the coastline to the north. After about an hour we arrived at the Trig Station and the first of three Easter devotional stops, each of these stops representing one of the three days - Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday. Phillip referred to 2 Corinthians 5:21 and 2 Peter 2:24 which describe Jesus as having no sin bearing all of our sins on the cross. He gave two illustrations (1) a householder hired a jumbo bin for a cleanout of his place. As the bin stood on the street, neighbours came along and put their rubbish in, all at the householder’s expense. On a nearby hill was a man nailed to a cross, suffering severe agony. He was asking everyone to bring all their rubbish to him, as he had already paid the price for this. (2) just as the light and heat from the sun can be focussed by a magnifying glass on to a piece of paper to set it alight, so are all the sins, sicknesses and evils of the world focussed on Christ dying on the cross. To finish with, Phillip handed out a sheet headed A Prayer of Reflection of the Last Words of Christ, which had seven Bible verses being the last words of Jesus as he hung on the cross dying. Each of these verses was followed by an appropriate prayer; Phillip read out the verses, and we all said out aloud together the prayers. Just past the trig we took a side track, Tokatu Point Track, that led through scrub to Tokatu Point on the tip of the Tawharanui peninsula. We could look down on to the rugged coastline - and some fishermen just outside the limit of the marine reserve that skirts the northern side of the peninsula - and across to Leigh and Cape Rodney. We returned to the main track, and continued along the South Coast Track dropping down into a valley. A side track brought us to Maori Bay, a delightful pair of  little beaches and ideal for our lunch stop. We could look across to the lesser-known northern end of Kawau Island with its bush and rocky coast. After lunch Katrina focussed our attention on Easter Saturday, where the body of Jesus lay buried in a tomb. She gave three aspects of the tomb experience, with a moment of silence following each one for contemplation. The first was a time of death, the loss of a special person, and grief. Grief and loss of a loved one is an unavoidable fact of life, and there is a comfort in sharing grief with like-minded people. The second aspect was a time of failure, with the crucifixion of Christ an apparent failure where Jesus promising to be the Messiah was put to death and out of action. Just as Christ rose from the grave, so God can turn our failures around. The third aspect was a time of hidden transformation. As the body of Jesus lay in the tomb, He descended into hell to bring about the greatest transformation in history. Likewise we may not see God working in our lives, but nevertheless he is doing his work of transformation. Afterwards we returned to the main South Coast Track and climbed back up to the hill tops, passing through herds of cows. An hour or so further along we found a shady spot under a tree on the clifftops, and had to negotiate an electric fence to reach it. Here Roger shared about Easter Sunday, when Christ rose from the dead. Roger likened the stories of the three days of Easter to a trilogy (a set of three separate dramas making up a whole story together). As the last of the three dramas in a trilogy comes to a grand climax, so does Easter Sunday in the resurrection of Jesus as the victory of God over all evil. The empty tomb is the very heart of our faith; the Resurrection is a seal for us, our sins being forgiven; because Christ lives, so will we live for ever. He concluded the devotion by reading part of The Miracle of Easter by Helen Steiner Rice. The final section of the South Coast Track was a steady drop down to a lovely lagoon at the start of the Tawharanui Regional Park. The tide was in, and the lagoon presented a spectacular view with a group of canoeists enjoying the water. As we finished the track, so Phillip brought the devotions to a conclusion by talking about the post-Easter programme. One of the saddest things about Easter finished is the return of normal days with the same old problems, indifferences, etc. We need to take the glory of Easter into the year ahead. A ten-minute roadbash brought us back to our cars, and the beach. For some of us it was a welcome swim in the surf on such a mild afternoon. Soon after 3:30pm we were back in our cars and on our way into Warkworth for our mandatory icecream stop before heading home to Auckland. COST: $10