Twenty people ignored the weather and decided to have a good time exploring the bush reserves at Torbay, enjoying the beauty of God’s New Zealand native bush creations polished by the rainwater. We met at the Titoki Montessori Preschool carpark in Stredwick Drive at 2pm, just as a dry morning turned to a wet afternoon. Our tramp would be in figure-of-8 form - a loop through the Awaruku Bush Reserve, followed by a loop through the Torbay Heights reserves. Awaruku Bush contains a nature trail with 90 numbered stakes indicating various historical sites, native trees and other sites of natural interest, explained in a leaflet produced by the North Shore City Council that our leaders handed out on the trip. We entered the reserve from Awaruku Rd, two minutes walk from the cars, and walked through the side track to the Reiko Crescent entrance, the site of St Mary’s Church, a historic church built in 1885 that was relocated there in 1978, only to be burned down a little later. All that remained was the charred cross. We returned to the main part of the nature trail, and were able to identify various native trees as well as learn a few things such as how old a nikau tree is. The track returned through the site of an old quarry, whose walls were clearly seen. We returned to the car park then carried on past a wetland pond and along Fitzwilliam Drive and into the bush of the Torbay Heights Reserve, shelter from the now steady rain! The track we followed went up to the lookout on the corner of East Coast Rd and Glenvar Rd beside the conspicuous microwave tower, used for telephone communications, not for cooking our afternoon tea. After our break we re-entered the bush off Glenvar Rd, dropping down to Emlyn Place and into the Emlyn Reserve for a short loop walk. This came out to a large earth dam built to contain stormwater during heavy rainstorms to prevent flooding further down the valley. This dam has been known to overflow on occasions.

A ten minute roadbash brought us back to our cars just after 4pm, bringing an end to a wet walk enjoyed by everybody! A first for the Club - two people were seen to wear ties! Wayne wore his good garb ready for church underneath his overalls, and a tiny bit of his tie could be seen under the crewneck jumper below the neck, and John decided to follow suit but instead tied his tie to the back of his ponytail! COST: $3 for the single carload coming from The Bracken