17 people came along for a walk up Mt Eden along the lesser-known off-road tracks. We gathered at Tahaki Reserve at 2pm and after our intros and prayer we set off through a short bush track to the Normanby Road kids playground, where a couple of us had a go on the flying fox. From there we climbed up to the summit road and carried on a track through open pasture to come to the north side to the crater. We carried on around the rim of the crater to the summit and the trig, arriving about 2:55pm, to enjoy the extensive panoramic views from the highest point on the Auckland isthmus. There was a strong wind, so we went on a short distance to beside an old radio building for our devotions. Mark told about his road to recovery from an accident in August last year where he was run over a car causing a significant brain injury. It was so bad that he was fortunate to have survived, being thankful to God. Mark said that he never had a sense of God's presence, but realised that it is God who is leading and guiding him all the time. He said that to worship God is to confess Him as Lord, Romans 10:8 if we confess Jesus is Lord we will be saved. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart physically, mentally, and with our emotions and will. We are also called to serve Him. Citing Jesus at Gethsemane saying Not my will but Your will be done, we are to submit to God. Mark had done a study of the Lord's prayer, taking 60 hours, and said that God's will is for every living person to come to honour Him. Confess, serve, love, honour, submit to Him. We continued on, going down a track to the summit road, then following it a short way to a track that went down the south side of the mountain through open grass before entering bush to come to the end of Batger Rd. From there we carried on through the bush parallel with Mt Eden Rd before climbing up to the summit road near the kiosk. We had a look at the now unoccupied building that was once a restaurant under the names of Tea Kiosk, Orchid Room and Langton's over the years. From there we dropped down to the Tahaki Reserve, finishing at 4pm.

DISTANCE: 3.8km, average speed 1.8km/h including breaks, maximum speed 5.9km/h