The last day of daylight saving was a glorious summery day, bringing out many as 36 people to explore the Tawharanui Regional Park near Matakana. Several car loads left The Bracken soom after 8am, and met up with the rest of us at the main carpark at the regional park. After the intros and prayer we set out at 9:45am, going up a farm road to the ridge top where we had panoramic views of the area. It was good to see that there were several guests and extra family members attending.  The weather was perfect – truly stunning with blue skies throughout.  It was hot at times, and as the day progressed we did feel some sympathy / admiration for those four or so keen trampers who had chosen to tramp with full packs in training for Waikaremoana at Easter or other adventures.   We followed the very conventionally named North Coast Track along the northern side of the Peninsula. That portion of the track was over pasture grazed intermittently by sheep and pukako. Toward the end of the pensinsula we turned off onto the Tokatu Point Lookout and Tokatu Loop Track. This portion of the track passed through Ti Tree scrub of varying heights and density.  At the end of the peninsula we enjoyed great views of Little Barrier and Leigh. We were most impressed to come across a large group of young people busy trimming back vegetation either side of the track as part of their work towards Duke of Edinborough Awards.   We did wonder whether Barbara had a special category in her risk analysis process to cover risks associated with tramping past keen but relatively untrained people with various cutting and sawing implements.  However they were of more risk to themselves than to us.   We then began our walk back along the southern side of the Peninsula – taking the also aptly but rather uninterestingly named South Coast Track.  Lunch was enjoyed down at Maori Bay where the sea put on an impressive, if somewhat noisy, display.   After lunch a small group (consisting mostly of one carload that needed to leave earlier) took the shorter way back to the carpark along Fisherman’s Track.  The rest of the trampers continued along the South Coast Track along an open pasture track which was described by some as ‘undulating’.  There were good views of Kawau Island along this side of the peninsula.  At the end of the South Coast Track we walked downhill to the lagoon, across the boardwalk, and back along the gravel road to the carpark.   Once again the grazing pukeko were in evidence.

From there we had a 20 minute road back along Takatu Rd to the carpark, and we were finished by 2:30pm. Following our arrival back at the carpark (at approximately 2.20pm), carloads dispersed in a variety of directions with some choosing to stay for a swim, while others proceeded to Matakana for coffee.   COST: travel from The Bracken $16 DISTANCE: 11.7km MAXIMUM SPEED:  12.3km/h AVERAGE SPEED:  3.9km/h