Auckland Baptist Tramping Club

Thirteen people decided to celebrate St Patrick’s Day in a special way - to spend their time being surrounded by the greenery of native bush on the Hakarimata walkway near Ngaruawahia, one of the Club’s many well-supported perennial favourites.  The garb worn by some of the trampers also reflected the day - there were green tops, pants, socks, T-shirts, a green hat marked St Patrick’s Day, and one person even wore a green tinsel wig! We left The Bracken at 8am and met up with Kevin at the start of the Hakarimata Track in Ngaruawahia. It was 10am when we set out in light rain which soon stopped as we began to follow a well-formed track up a valley alongside a stream. We came to the original water supply dam for Ngaruawahia, now preserved as a historic place. Gary had brought along a rope, thinking we would need to use it to climb the rock face to the dam - just two weeks before he had reccied this part and a staircase was in the process of being built. We were relieved to find the steps now in place ready for us. A metalled side track led to the end of the small reservoir, which could have made a good swimming hole on a hot summer’s day. Beyond the dam the track became more rough, but was still well defined and marked as we faced a long grunt up to the main ridge of the Hakarimata Range. We had a brief stop beside a large tree not too far from the top. A little further on we had a brief outlook to the town of Ngaruawahia. We arrived on the summit ridge, and five minutes further on the site of the Hakarimata trig, now completely gone. It was just after 11:30am as we reached this spot. Unfortunately there was no view, but there was a pleasant area of green grass to sit down for lunch.

Carole chose the theme of building relationships for her devotions. Quoting James 1:19 she said we need to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry. God wants us to live at peace with everyone. In a time of stress we need to realise that we need to keep our sense of humour, not to panic and not to use unnecessary force. Proverbs 17:22 says that a cheerful heart is good medicine. There are more people who lose their jobs through relationship with workmates rather than through incompetence. She concluded by returning to James 1:19, commenting that if we are quick to listen and slow to speak, we would find it easy to be slow to be angry. Swearing can be common in a workplace and can cause stress, but one can politely ask a workmate to tone his speech down and use acceptable language. We then went back to the junction then carried on along the ridge track southwards, following an undulating course to come to the junction with the track to the CYC camp. Beyond this the track began to gradually descend. We had frequent stops to keep the group together, and occasional glimpses through the bush of the countryside both east and west. We eventually dropped down to follow a stream, known as Firewood Creek. The track became more well-formed and we came out to the Waingaro Road about 3pm. It was a pleasant 3km roadbash back to Ngaruawahia, passing a quarry then the CYC (Christian Youth Camps), a place bringing back memories for some of us of camps there as teenagers, with their flying fox, horses, adventure activities and Bible times. We were glad to come to a dairy for icecreams; just a short walk further on was the carpark. We were out by 4pm, and we intended to stop for coffee at a bright green tearooms at Taupiri to mark St Paddy’s Day, only to find it had shut for the day at 3pm. Instead we stopped at Mercer for coffee and evening meal, some of us at the Esquires coffee shop and the others at Pokeno Bacon, before heading back to The Bracken to finish a lovely day.

COST: $18