Auckland Baptist Tramping Club SATURDAY 27 - to Houhora We drove to Houhora and set up camp at the campground using several family-size tents belonging to the club and the leaders. Some of the group used their own tents. The campground is beside the Houhora Heads looking across to Mt Camel. What was once the well-known Wagener Museum is now used as backpacker dorms and an internet room. SUNDAY 28 - church and Cape Reinga We went to the Pukenui Community Church for the morning service. This church had been set up by local Christians of all denominations for fellowship and outreach in the Houhora/Pukenui area, and is an independent church. There are no ordained elders or deacons. The service began about 10:10am, and the rather small chapel was so full that chairs had to be placed in the aisle. The pastor, a Maori fellow named John, led the service and his wife sat on the keyboard. For the first half of the service members of the congregation were invited to share, interspersed with songs. Gary Thompson told everyone how God had brought him through the stroke he had four months ago. We filed to the altar rail to receive communion, being wafer bread and grapejuice, before singing a song as the velvet was passed around. The kids went out to Sunday school before John preached on the first few verses of the book of his name, about John the Baptist, and the God being the Word coming as light to meet the darkness, which the darkness could not comprehend, and how Jesus would come to baptise in the Holy Spirit just as John did with water. At the finish two people came forward for prayer with laying-on of hands. . Morning tea was served in the hall at the back of the church afterwards, a chance to meet some of the local Christian people..   We left Houhora about 2pm for a trip to Cape Reinga. There were three or four cars travelling in convoy as we headed northwest through Te Kao and Waitiki Landing. We had a brief stop at a viewpoint before Cape Reinga but there was a strong cold wind. The road between Waitiki Landing and Cape Reinga was in the process of being sealed, and the area around the cape and lighthouse was also being done up. We walked down a newly-completed path to the lighthouse. After having a look at this tourists’ must-do, and the waves breaking over a reef wrongly touted as the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meeting, we climbed up a grass track then onto the start of the walkway to Twilight Beach and Cape Maria Van Diemen. We only had time to follow the clifftop section of the track with its dramatic coastal views. Rosalind was feeling a bit tired, so Andrew accompanied her back to the cars, carrying her backpack. Soon after 4pm we left Cape Reinga and took the side road to Taputaputa (Tapotupotu) Bay where we stopped and had a good look around. Gary and Margaret drove Alex to the roadend just three minutes walk away to view part of the three-day Te Paki Walkway which the gang would do as a pack-carry a week later. MONDAY 29 - Karikari Peninsula We drove to Karikari Peninsula and our first walk for the day, Puheke Hill. This is the symmetrical hill in the shape of a ruince that can be seen from many parts of the Karikari Peninsula and surrounding areas. We set off along a metalled road before going on to a grass track for the steady half-hour climb to the summit to be rewarded with a 360 degree panorama including Matai Bay, Whatuwhiwhi, Doubtless Bay, the Kaitaia area, Rangaunu Harbour, and Mt Camel. At the summit was a trig and a Maori carved pole. Back the same way we came, then on to Whatuwhiwhi for a quick munchie stop - it was now well after midday - before going on to Maitai Bay for our lunch stop at the southern cove. Andrew and John went for a quick swim - the tide was low, and it was our first beach swim for the season. We clambered over the small ridge to the northern cove before walking along the beach to the northern end. Our intention was to explore the northern head of the bay, and climb to the summit if possible - leader Gary was curious to explore this part that he had never been to. At the far end of the bay we could not get around the rocky foreshore so turned back and about halfway along the beach we found a track leading up to come out at the boundary of one of thee campgrounds. By now John R, Margaret and Andrew had left the group to relax at the beach. The rest of us followed the edge of an overgrown paddock that had not been grazed for years before picking up a track going through the bush near the clifftops. This came to a junction where a sign warned us to keep out of the adjoining private land, and we carried on the track to the right which climbed up to a high point where we could look back across Karikari Moana and see the distinct ruince shape of Puheke, with Mt Camel in the distance. The wide vehicle track came to a dead end, so we retraced our route back to the starting point. I had a quick swim in the south cove of Maitai Bay.  Andrew had gone on to the Karikari Winery halfway between Maitai Bay and Whatuwhiwhi with Margaret, and John R was sitting under a tree reading a book. We all went on to the winery. It was a nice, well-kept winery with a sweeping view out to Karikari Moana with its sand dunes and the ruince of Puheke Hill to the left and Maitai Bay to the right, a great setting for a coffee. TUESDAY 30 - Kaitaia We drove in three cars to Kaitaia to meet up with a friend of Gary’s. Our intention was to tramp part of the long Kaitaia Walkway. We drove out to the Diggers Valley end, a long gravel road winding through pasture and bush. By now it was 1pm, and after some discussion we decided to go to the Larmers Rd end and walk in for over an hour each way. Eileen and Rosalind did not want to do the walk, so went back into Kaitaia for retail therapy. Gary led the rest of us along a wide track being an old road winding its way gradually up through the Herekino Forest. After a while we took a steep side track up to a grove of kauri trees. We returned to the main track and carried on to a side track leading to a lookout before returning to our start point about 4:30pm. That night Charlie arrived at camp with Katherine and a friend Leonie. WEDNESDAY 31 - Houhora Gary decided to postpone the trip to Mt Camel in favour of a leisure day at the camp. Alex and Andrew and John hired pushbikes for a trip to Kaimaumau - the Houhora area unfortunately does not offer much for cycling with its lack of suitable roads. After a karakia from Alex we set out along  the highway south, but the two A’s shot ahead of me, both having trained in cycle racing while John was used to travelling at a leisurely pace.  The trip was eventually abandoned due to the long stretch of main highway, and Andrew having a puncture. In the afternoon Gary brought out his boat and an inflatable banana boat and biscuit boards, plus kayaks, for watersports. The wind came up, and Gary decided to cancel a planned trip to Mt Camel for the two As and John. Instead the three of us did a drive to Kaimaumau. The final piece of road to the beach was a private but open to public access, with stones and tyres placed by the owners to act as speed humps. While Alex decided to stay put in the car working on his concert item, the other two did a lovely walk along the pure white sand beach, looking out across to Rangiputa. We came back to the camp for a lovely dinner of roast, BBQ sausages and smoked fish. Margaret concluded the meal by sharing from Luke 5, the Bible passage about Jesus asking the fishermen to throw their net over the other side of the boat, resulting in a huge catch, then telling the disciples they would be fishers of men. Margaret said that although there are a lot of negative things around such as the recession, we would need to take a positive attitude to the new year. She finished the devotions with a karakia. Soon after 9pm we gathered at the camp for our concert, the admission being to put on an item. David was the MC, and did a great job of sharing jokes and anecdotes between the items. Eileen, Kim and Rosalind put on a Doctor Doctor skit; John imitated Barbara Langridge and others from the South Island summer tramps gang; Margaret, Gary and Steve did a fashion show skit; Charlie, Katherine and Leonie did an African dance; and Alex, Andrew and Nick Young sang a camp song to Te Haranui. Several teenage boys joined us for the concert - they were a group of Christian young people from Wellington who joined in conversation with some of us afterwards, while others of our group danced to music from Abba and 1960s rock ‘n’roll. At 11:45pm we went down to the foreshore to see the new year in with an impressive 15-minute display of fireworks contributed by various campers including our group.