17 of us had an interesting time exploring the Auckland Domain by night. Starting from the duckpond carpark at 7pm, our leader Laurie King took us up to the top of the old volcano Pukekawa to show us a tree and Maori carvings where a peace treaty had been made between two tribes. We also saw a monument built for the centenary of the Auckland Regiment. before going on to the site of an old water supply reservoir behind the museum. From there we went on to the sensory garden for the blind. Closing our eyes, we took time to smell the flowers and plants as the blind would do, enjoying the fragrances. This is best done by rubbing your fingers on the plants then putting the fingers up to your nose.

Laurie told us about Fanny Crosby, who was born in the USA in 1820. At the age of six weeks she had an infection in her eyes and became completely blind. At 6 months her dad passed away, and Fanny was brought up by her mum and grandma who were both very keen Christians. In church as she couldn't see anything, she really liked the music, especially the hymns, and she also memorised much scripture and loved poetry. Fanny wrote over 8000 hymns including the well-known Blessed Assurance. She realised that God loves prisoners, and has visited prisons to tell them about Christ. When you see a blind person being led by someone, the hands are on their arms, there is the sense of touch  and closeness, and they also smell the surrounding areas. There is also the sense of taste. Fanny likened this to Jesus Christ the Saviour, she wouldn't go anywhere without Him. This applies to us today, Jesus is alive. We believe in Him although we have never seen Him physically face to face, but we need to trust Him like a blind person trusts those around them. Laurie gave an invitation for those who don't know our Saviour but want to, to contact him or any other of the club's leaders. We continued on to the front of the museum and the cenotaph before going down a pathway to the Parnell railway station, having a look at some peppertrees on the way. Laurie said he often brings his dog on the train to this station to chase possums in the domain's bush, taking advantage of the free gold card fares. As we carried on through the bush we did spot one or two possums in the trees. We came to the Nikau Walk and saw the nikau trees, then we went up the Lovers Lane track to see lots of lovely glow worms as we turned off all our torches and headlamps. Although this was the climax item of our "concert" this wasn't the finish, there was also the water feature in the formal gardens to see before we got back to the carpark at 9:15pm.

DISTANCE 4.1km AVERAGE SPEED INCLUDING BREAKS  1.8km/h MAXIMUM SPEED  8km/h