The weather is full of surprises - wet and miserable weather the day before was no indication of what we would be in for, balmy early spring sunshine to bring out 16 people to do the return walk on the mostly level Rotary Walkway on the shores of Tamaki River at Pakuranga. We set out from the scout hall carpark at Pigeon Mountain going along a boardwalk through wetland and passing a playground before going under Prince Regent Drive. The track then followed the true left of the Wakaaranga Creek with its mangroves. The creek gave way to the eastern side of the wide Tamaki River, and we passed another playground, a little beach with kids paddling, and the Pakuranga Sailing Club. The lack of wind and a high tide added to the beauty of the coastal walk. Further on we passed some ignimbrite cliffs. We had our afternoon tea stop as soon as we reached the edge of the St Kentigern grounds about 3:10pm. Katherine gave a devotions on Old clothes, new clothes - Colossians 3:5-17. In the early church a candidate for baptism would take off their old clothes and put on new white clothing to signify purity. In our Christian life the old clothing represents the earthly sinful nature of the unbeliever - impurity, sexual immorality, lust, greed and evil desired. We also need to get rid of such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, lies and filthy language. The new clothes we need to wear in Christ are compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility, patience and forgiving one another. The garment of love binds all these together in unity. At 3:30pm we were on our way retracing our footsteps back to Pigeon Mountain. Going back the same way to the start point may sound a bit uninteresting, but really there is always a different view of the track as we travel in the opposite direction.

We were back at the carpark at 4:30pm having completed 10 kilometres, about 2-3km more than a normal Sunday afternoon walk. DISTANCE WALKED:  10.0km MAXIMUM SPEED: 10.1km/h AVERAGE SPEED: 5 km/h COST: $3 travel from The Bracken