Sixteen people chose to celebrate Independence Day by taking a midwinter wander through the Waiuku Forest
at the entrance of the Waikato River. We left The Bracken in two cars and met up with the rest of the
group at the Caltex station at Bombay where we did our intros before carrying on to the forest.
We
started our tramp at Lookout 23 overlooking the Tasman Sea coast. We walked down an access track nearby
to come to the River Cliffs Track. This sandy track went through pine forest to come to a carpark.
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From there we continued along the track to come out on the shores of the Waikato River where we had
our elevenses break. We could look out across to the settlement of Port Waikato.
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Afterwards we carried on along the beach a short way before turning in to pine forest following Montgomery
Rd. There was a herd of cows grazing in a fenced-off area among the pines.
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We stopped for lunch somewhere along Tapu Rd, but soon had to use our raincoats as protection against
liquid sunshine instead of tarpaulins to sit on.
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From there it was a straightforward roadbash back to the lookout to come out at 1pm. Steve likened
the WaikatoRiver to God’s river of life in a brief closing speech.
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We stopped at a coffee shop in Tuakau before having a look at the Alexandra Redoubt overlooking the
Waikato River. This had been built in 1863 to protect this part of the Waikato River and allow safe passage
of the steamer Avon during the Maori land wars.
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