A beach tramp during the beach season - but on an ocean beach unsafe for swimming yet good for exploring. Despite a nice hot day only 5 members joined two Pathways members for this jaunt - admittedly there were two big events on in Auckland that day, the Skycity Starlight Symphony in the Auckland Domain and the Super 14 rugby at Eden Park, this would have affected attendances. One car load left The Bracken at 8am and after picking Peter up from Papakura we proceeded to Waikorea Beach on the west coast between Port Waikato and Raglan, meeting up with the Pathways group about 10:15am on Te Akau Coast Road. Our original intention was to follow the Waimai Stream to the beach, but we could not find any sign of a public accessway. We decided to drive about 5km northwards to follow the Waikorea Stream where there was a foot-only public access indicated by an old sign, asking people to keep close to the stream all the way to the beach. It was about 10:45am when we set out, passing a herd of curious cows to start with. Following the stream was straightforward; in one place we crossed a wooden farm bridge to follow the other side of the stream.  This came out to the long ocean beach of Waikorea, its black iron sand believed to have originated from Mt Taranaki. In the distance to the south was Mt Karioi; northwards we could see our destination point, Crayfish Point. We walked along the beach towards Crayfish Point, stopping for a short elevenses stop about midday at the end of the beach. To reach Crayfish Point we scrambled up a steep muddy gully which a tiny stream was cascading down. Once on the ridge we could see the rugged coastline as we walked out to the headland for our lunch stop. One of our group declined the challenge of the steep gully and was happy to wait on the beach at the bottom for us to return. We found an easier alternative route beside the steep muddy gully to return to the beach for walk back to the end of the farm access. A small sand dune made an excellent stop for devotions, with an outlook to the sea. To illustrate the almighty power of our God Brian told us about what the various space probes such as Voyager and the Hubble telescope have found - the universe is so vast it contains billions of galaxies. He read out the whole of Psalm 8, which expounds how majestic and glorious God is, especially with the moon and stars, and how he made us (mankind) just a little lower than the angels and put us in charge of all animal life, land and sea. He concluded with Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God. We were out at the cars about 3pm, and headed to the Waingaro Hot Springs for a swim that was relaxing and refreshing despite the summer heat.

Afterwards, Brian’s group returned to Hamilton while the other car load had a dinner stop at Mercer before arriving back at The Bracken about 7:30pm, bringing to a finish a lovely day out in the water and sunshine. COST: Travel $22; Waingaro Hot Springs $8.