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Thirty people turned up on St Patrick’s Day to tramp the first day of the new Edmund Hillary Trail, a
4-day trek through the Waitakere Ranges that can be done as a strenuous pack-carry, or in instalments
as day trips.
We left The Bracken and 8am and met up with the rest of the group at the filter
station at the beginning of Exhibition Drive in Titirangi. After the karakia and intros we set out along
Exhibition Drive, the start of the trail, at 8:45am. This was a level vehicle track with views out to
the Manukau Harbour that came out a Mackie’s Rest where we could look down to the lower Nihotupu Reservoir.
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From there we went on to the brand new Beveridge Track, a well formed path that climbed up to the
Arataki Visitor Centre, arriving about 10am. We had our elevenses break, and John wearing a green tinsel
wig gave a devotions about the story of St Patrick. This man was kidnapped from England at the age of
16 and taken to Ireland to work as a slave. God told him in a dream to escape to the coast where a ship
would take him home. He trained to be a priest, and was called back to Ireland to preach the gospel of
Jesus Christ, which he did for thirty years before going to heaven on 17 March 461AD. He was said to
use the three-leaf shamrock to explain the Trinity - God the Father, a Dad who loves us like an earthly
father; God the Son, lived a perfect life and took the penalty of our sins on the cross and rose from
the dead to give us eternal life in heaven; God the Holy Spirit, the ever-present mother-heart through
whom we can pray and receive from, just as a child often perceives their mum to be the closer of the
two parents. We are in a family of love now and for eternity with a Dad, Brother (the Son Jesus Christ)
and a Mum (the Holy Spirit) plus our fellow believers.
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We had to clean our boots at this point at a spray station, a measure set up to combat the spread
of the die-back disease threatening to kill of our kauri trees. The trail crossed the Nihotupu Tramline,
now officially a railway corridor closed to tramping, and dropped down the Slip Track to join the Pipeline
Track.
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We came out to the Nihotupu Dam Road track that was level at first before climbing up to the start
of the Hamilton Track. There was another shoe cleaning station for the kauri dieback
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Hamilton Track was very muddy and slushy, and made for slow travel. It took us up to one-and-a-half
hours to climb to the intersection with Summit Track for a quick lunch stop about 1pm. Afterwards there
was more slush to contend with as we carried on down into the Huia valley. Further down the track we
could see out to the Lower Huia Reservoir with the Manukau Harbour and Awhitu Peninsula in the distance.
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We were glad to get out onto Smiths Road, and paused at a bridge to view the upper reaches of the
reservoir. It would be lovely to get a canoe and paddle around this part, but easier said than done -
any form of boating or swimming would be strictly taboo.
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It was a half hour walk along the Smiths Road and Huia Dam Road over a hill to come to the Lower
Huia Dam with the carpark below. We were all out by 3pm, and were able to wash our muddy boots in the
stream before we got into the cars for a welcome coffee and icecreams at the Huia Store to conclude a
strenuous but enjoyable day.
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