| Auckland Baptist Tramping Club |
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ANZAC ANTICIPATOR Waiheke Island 24-25 April |
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| For a fullsize picture click on the thumbnail |
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An easy weekend on Waiheke Island was how eighteen trampers marked Anzac this year. The weather was dull
and grey, and Auckland got its fair share of rain, but on Waiheke we had to use our raincoats for
only five minutes on Saturday morning. Saturday We left on the 8:15am Quickcat boat for the 35min journey to Matiatia on Waiheke Island. On arrival we were met by hosts Colin and May who collected our luggage and broughtit back to their home in Oneroa. We then set out on the first of our walks for the weekend, the new Church Bay walkway. From Matiatia Bay the track climbed up to follow the clifftops. We soon came to a point which had the remains of a Maori pa. After a rest stop we carried on, past one or two mansions and in one place bashing through flax and cutty grass, to eventually arrive at Church Bay. our elevenses stop. A climb along a fenceline through farm paddocks brought us to a lookout where we could see out across the water to Rangitoto, Motutapu and Motuihe Islands, with Auckland and its Sky tower in the distance. A further fenceline on the edge of a patch of bush brought us down to the end of Church Bay Road. We then had a twenty minute roadbash to our lunch spot, chez Colin and May. Our afternoon jaunt was to Palm Beach. We went down to Oneroa Beach, then climbed up to follow the clifftop walkway to Little Oneroa. This was our Red Jersey Ice Cream Stop #1. Tummies charged, we followed a bush track climbing to skirt the cliff tops to eventually come out to Newton Road. We then decided to roadbash all the way to Hauraki Cory Road overlooking Palm Beach, then drop down through Nawhitipana Reserve to Little Palm Beach, thence to Palm Beach and Red Jersey Ice Cream Stop #2. We met up with Jill and May, who had brought the two young children. May then took some of us back in her car, while the rest of us went up a Hill Road to view a house made of mudbrick. May came back in the car and when we had reached the top of Hill Rd she took a few more back, and so on - however, some of us managed to walk all the way back “home”. After a yummy dinner, we relaxed and browsed through magazines, books and a photo album of Club tramps including the past Xmas trip. Some of us had a game of improvised pictionary, in the absence of a proper pictionary set. Sunday As to be expected, the day dawned with the Presidential Cups of Tea in Bed Service. But that was not the only service for the day. Ten minutes walk away was the local Anglican church, and those who wanted to went there in time for the start at 9:30am. For an unaccustomed person who is more familiar with Baptist or other church denominations, an Anglican service is a bit strange, with its kneeling, unison responses, much of the service being read out of a book, traditional hymns sung to an electric organ, and the minister preparing the communion with real wine on the altar during one of the hymns. The minister had a white dress; the priest wore a white gown with a long red ribbon hanging down from both sides of the neck as far as the knees. Apparently according to Anglican tradition, each Sunday has a theme colour and for this Sunday, being the Easter season, the colour was red. It was interesting to see how another part of the Body of Christ goes about its Sunday worship. After elevenses at eleven, we went on Tramp #3. We carried along Church Bay road and turned into a private road that climbed up and over a hill to drop down towards Blackpool Beach. A side track brought us to the western end of the beach, where we had a look at the well-rotted remains of an old boat. We carried along the beach to the other end, then walked the gravel road around Blackpool Point to Surfdale. A stiff climb up a zigzag track brought us to Burrell Road, and we followed this and some other roads to come to Little Oneroa Beach. The clifftop track between Little Oneroa and Oneroa brought us to Oneroa. Some of us chose to walk the beach while the rest wandered past the shops. A yummy lunch of filled rolls greeted us as we returned to chez Colin and May. Tramp #4 - a straightforward roadbash along Church Bay Road and Ocean View Road to Matiatia wharf and the 3pm boat back to Auckland. Our luggage was taken to the wharf by car. COST: $36 (boat travel, food, accommodation) |