Twenty-two people turned up to take a last look at the Waiatarua Reserve before the Auckland City Council would begin to ruin the reserve’s rural beauty by turning the grazing paddocks into mown fields and the area of wetlands into a large lake. The council had been toying with that idea for the past five years because the reserve has been draining into the Orakei Basin and helping to pollute it, but it was only recently that the council decided to make a start in October, so Paul, who lives nearby, decided to run this trip just days before the ruination was due to start. The Club had never been to Waiatarua Reserve before as a daytime tramp, the only time it had ever been done was in May 2000 as a night walk, finishing with supper chez Paul. We sat out from Paul’s house about 2pm after we had our usual introductions and prayer.   The Waiatarua Reserve was only five minutes walk from Paul’s home. We set out across the paddocks that were being grazed by cattle who would be found a new home within the next week or so.   We came to the wetland bird sanctuary in the middle of the reserve and stopped at the viewing platform where we could see ducks and pukeko in the placid waters amongst the flax and bulrushes. It would have been lovely to have completed the rest of the wetlands walkway, but the boardwalk had been deteriorating and may have been unsafe in places. So we returned to the grazing area and carried on along the track to the southwest end of the reserve.   We walked along Abbots Way and through Liston Park, going between the playing fields rather than across them, then onto the Michaels Avenue Reserve. The wetlands there were in the form of a large pond, and we stopped to observe the bird life.   We continued on through the reserve, passing the YMCA and the sports fields to come out on Elwood Place. From there we roadbashed through to Ladies Mile and down Abbotts Way to Abbotts Park where we left the formed path and walked across the grass passing a large drain to come back out on Abbots Way.

We returned to Waiatarua Reserve and this time we took the track running along the south and east sides of the grazing paddocks, going off the track in one place to give us our last chance to walk directly on the boggy and slushy grass. It was after 4pm when we returned to Paul’s house and enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea to finish a very interesting afternoon off.