abtc western springs

Threatening skies and a dismal weather forecast did not deter eleven people from taking a walk from Grey Lynn via Chinaman’s Hill to Western Springs then go around the lake.

We left cars at the start of the tramp, at the end of King St. in Grey Lynn, and at the end of the tramp at the Western Springs stadium carpark. The first part of the tramp was a relatively new walkway starting at King St. and following along the foot of Chinaman’s Hill alongside the northwestern motorway. this was a wide track going through bushy scrub, coming out at Ivanhoe Rd.

From there we crossed Great North Road and the nearby sports field to come to the start of another newish track - this was a zigzag track climbing the hill between Bullock Track and the stadium. At the top we could look back down to Great North Road and the sports fields, and the suburb of Mt Albert in the distance. We carried on along Surrey Cres. and into West View Road; all the houses we passed were of a unique and uniform design being small cottage-bungalows with stucco walls and a centre front door with two windows on each side. One of our group commented that type of home was common in Australia.

The track through the pines from West View Road to Western Springs Lake was very lovely, with the pines growing much taller than as seen in many commercial pine forests We had a couple of glimpses of the adjoining zoo. Robyn missed this section because it was too difficult to take the pram, so walked around the edge of the lake to rejoin us..

We continued around the lake to the zoo carpark, then crossed Motions Rd. and into Moray Place to start the 15-minute Pasadena Walk. This followed Meola Stream around the edge of the Pasadena Intermediate School grounds. This was a lovely walk, with the stream winding its way through a nice carpet of weeds and other vegetation.

The tramp finished with an exploration of the network of tracks on the west and south sides of the lake. We looked down into the amphitheatre, which has hosted occasional stone sculpture exhibitions, and went off the formed track to follow a short bush track. We passed some small lakes and crossed a fancy bridge before following the path along the south side of the lake and out to the stadium carpark.