Auckland Baptist Tramping Club 2006

Ten of us took advantage of a fine sunny day (after a rainy night) to tramp the 20km coastal route from Long Bay to Cheltenham, being the bulk of the North Shore City Coastal Walk and part of the Te Araroa trail that would eventually link Cape Reinga with Bluff.. We started about 8:45am by walking the length of Long Bay beach. As the tide was still quite high, we had to take the clifftop route as far as Browns Bay. This started with the Oneroa Track, with views looking back to Long Bay. The Oneroa Track finished on Cliff Rd, and we roadbashed to Waiake Beach at Torbay for a brief stop. We continued over the clifftops roadbashing most of the way to drop down Lotus Walk to Browns Bay and a break at an ice-cream clinic. By now the tide had gone out a bit more, and we were able to follow the rocks. We came to Mairangi Bay, then carried on to Campbells Bay, following a pipeline to begin with.. Our walk continued around the Kennedy Park headland and into Castor Bay for a quick group-up stop. Then it was along the roads once more to Milford as the Wairau Creek is too deep to cross even at low tide. We did not risk crossing the low-tide crossing of Milford Marina in case it was slippery and we did not want to get cameras and cellphones washed! Our lunch stop was at Milford Beach. Nelson, Marian and David went in for a swim while the rest of us were content to cool off in the onshore breeze and feed the birds. Barbara arrived and joined us for the rest of our tramp. We carried on along the Takaford section of the North Shore City Coastal Walk, an interesting section that follows the lava flows from the Lake Pupuke volcano. The famous Takaford Chair needed a photo stop. When we reached the northern end of Takapuna Beach we had another stop for icecreamerating, then we continued along the beach. We were back into Waitemata Formation sandstone/mudstone cliffs as we continued down the coast towards Narrow Neck. The tide had begun to come in again as we negotiated the last rocky stretch between Narrow Neck and Cheltenham, a contrast to the “red carpet” style terrain that brides and grooms would take on wedding day..

We arrived at Cheltenham at 4:45pm. Geoff and Rosemary arrived to take the drivers back to their cars at Long Bay or Milford, and three of us waited at Cheltenham, with one going for a swim, for the cars to arrive to take us home. Ten heads would be sleeping soundly on wentilillos that night after a lovely walk in equally lovely weather. COST: $6-50.