A group of 12 met outside the Western Springs Community Centre on a nice sunny day for the walk through to Westmere and back. After the intros we set out at 2pm, going along Motions Rd past the zoo to Meola Rd. At this point one of us, who was using a walking stick, decided to pull out and return to the start point. We carried on through Lemington Reserve, a mixture of bush and open grass. We then went along Westmere Park Ave for our afternoon tea stop at Westmere Park overlooking the Waitemata Harbour and North Shore. We returned the same way to Leamington Rd, then went along it to the Westmere shops for an icecream. Then we carried on along Garnet Rd and down Meola Rd to Jaggers Bush Walk. This track went through bush following the east bank of Motions Creek to come out on Old Mill Road opposite the north side of Auckland Zoo. It was a steep grunt up Old Mill Road before we went along to the original entrance to the zoo, which is now just a closed entrance to the zoo’s servicing and maintenance base. We went on and turned in to West View Rd, which has a unique aspect of history. Nearly all the houses on this loop street were built in the 1920s of brick and stucco, and have the original front door with a curved top, and a window on either side, even when most of them had been renovated. The bush track from West View Rd gave panoramic views of the zoo as we went down it to come to Western Springs Lake. It was a lovely walk along the lakeside path with plenty of different birds to admire – swans, ducks, geese, sparrows, seagulls, pukekos and much more. Our lakeside walk climaxed at the Eel Bridge, where the waters were teeming with eels, a popular spot for visitors to the lake to admire them. We returned to Great North Rd, finishing at 4:40pm.