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A total of 31 people showed up to explore Hobsonville Point, which up till a few years ago was strictly
out of bounds, being home to the RNZAF in Auckland. Ten years ago the air force sold the land to Housing
NZ, and continued to rent it for several years before vacating it completely. Today it is being developed
into a new residential suburb of Auckland.
Two cars left The Bracken at 1:30pm to meet up with
the rest of the group at Catalina Café in Hobsonville at 2pm. We set out at 2:15pm and soon came to the
old barracks, now being used for teaching the hobby of traditional boatbuilding. A little further on
we came to the former air force headquarters building, which was built in art deco style. In front of
this was the parade ground and a memorial.
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As we carried on past the Catalina hangar and barracks, a group of children in plain clothes practising
military drill marched by. Some large red highly poisonous mushrooms on a lawn made for a quick photo
stop.
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We went down to the wharf and boat yards and had a look around before we carried on around to Catalina
Bay.
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A side track took us around Onekiritea, or Bomb Point. The air force used to store munitions for
enemy combat in 12 sheds, and we were able to have a look inside one of these. As we walked along the
old road we could look out through the barbed wire fence across to Beachhaven and to Auckland City across
the Waitemeta Harbour.
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We had our afternoon tea stop at 3:15pm. For our devotions, John read out a poem he wrote about Stefan,
a boy he had met at an ISCF camp in the Marlborough Sounds back in 1979. Stefan came up from his home
in Southland and was enjoying this week-long camp, having a go at swimming, activities and sports including
ragger, a form of touch rugby. The morning studies got him thinking about God, and at the Sunday morning
church service at the camp, he accepted Jesus Christ into his heart as Lord and Saviour. Next day Stefan
had a bad fall during a game of ragger, sustaining an injury so bad one of the leaders had to take him
to hospital in Blenheim. In his agonising pain Stefan cried out to Jesus pleading to be healed. When
he got to the top of the hill above the camp, he asked the leader to take off his bandage. The pain had
stopped completely, but the leader took Stefan on to the hospital. The doctors there examined Stefan
and found nothing wrong with him, so he was brought back to the camp. Next day was the last day of camp,
and he was called to the front of the camp hall to tell everyone what had happened. When he came home
he told his parents all the things that went on at camp, and decided to write a letter of thanks to the
camp director. A really changed boy thanks to Jesus Christ.
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Afterwards we carried on to come back out of Bomb Point, and we continued on along the main route.
We came to some earthworks, and a sign said that we should cut across the old aerodrome runway following
the windsocks. But we could not find any, and after asking two workmen nearby we ended up walking through
the site before cutting across some fields to come out back at our starting point at 4:15pm.
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The Catalina Café had closed for the day, but we had a look around a nearby sculpture playground,
an innovative idea that we found would not only amuse children but also middle-aged people in their crowns
of glory (Proverbs 16:31). A great way to finish an interesting afternoon in a place none of us had
ever been to before.
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