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A hot sunny afternoon brought out thirteen people to explore one of Auckland’s outer eastern suburbs,
named after its lovely beaches.
Five of us left The Bracken at 1:30pm and met up with the others
at the carpark off Wakelin Rd overlooking Sunkist Bay in Beachlands. After the usual intros and karakia
we wet out just after 2:30pm on a clockwise circuit that took in the walkway from Shelly Bay Rd to Bell
Rd passing a pond on the way.
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We came out to Pine Harbour Marina for our afternoon tea break at 3:20pm, dropping down from Pine
Harbour Parade through a vacant section onto the access path from Beachlands. Icecreams were very welcome
in the hot weather. For our devotions John read two Psalms from The Message translation. This version
of the Bible is known for its vivid modern language, and lends itself very well to these two Psalms read
out as poems accompanied by good body language. Psalm 104 is the Creation Psalm extolling the creation
of the world and universe, and Psalm 139 tells how we are wonderfully made and how our Creator knows
every detail of us and our lives.
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Wayne and Beulah preferred to wait at the marina while the rest of us went to have a look at
the lovely beach south of the marina.
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At 4:10pm, after watching a boat being forklifted out of the water to its storage rack, we began
our coastal walk to Motukaraka Island as the tide was now out far enough to do this. Barbara and Wayne
left the group at this point as they had to return home early to other commitments in the evening. We
arrived at the island twenty minutes later, and walked up a staircase to a lookout where we could look
across to Beachlands. Unfortunately the track stopped there and we were unable to get a view looking
north towards Waiheke Island.
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From there we returned to the mainland and road bashed to the carpark to finish our walk about
5:10pm. It was a lovely walk enjoyed by everyone, exploring land, seashore and an island.
COST:
travel from The Bracken $7
DISTANCE: 7.4km
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