Laurie and Brett led a group of 21 people on a tramp through the Woodhill Forest taking in a variety of terrains including roads, tracks, rough off-track routes and open beach, and including several surprises. We left The Bracken at 8am, and met up with most of the group at the mountain bike carpark on Boundary Road. After the intros and karakia we set out at 9:25am, going up through pine forest past the Tree Adventures and coming to the Old Lookout Biological Reserve. We stopped to have a look at the foundations of an old lookout tower that had since been demolished. We carried on the Rangitira Beach Walking Track through bush. About halfway down a large slope we stopped for our morning tea and devotions break. Brett told us how one night he was out with his son, who he pointed out to his dad that he could see the Milky Way with its millions of stars, and there are millions more in the universe, all created by the same Almighty God. When you see various plants in the ground, there are millions of different species, and the same goes for the animals as well. David, a long time before Christ came, shows a personal relationship with the Almighty Creator God in Psalm 139. The skies, the stars, all the plants and animals in existence, goes to show that there is definitely an Almighty God, and that everyone should believe this and have a personal relationship with Him through Christ. The track came out to a forestry road for a short while, then we were back on a track once more. We eventually came out to Coast Road and after a short walk along this we had our first off-track stretch. This began with a tricky clamber over fallen logs before going through open scrub and bush to the ocean beach backed by high dunes. We found a geocache that consisted of a plastic cookie jar containing a few little knicknacks such as a keyring, tiny plastic doll, some tissues and a snoopie bike wind-up torch. People could take any one of these things and leave something of greater value, but we decided to leave this completely alone. There was a fierce cold wind blowing in from the beach, and we had our lunch break just before midday in a sheltered spot behind the sand dunes. After half an hour we carried on, running down the steep ironsand dune to the beach before walking northwest along the beach for about 15 minutes to come to a track leading back into the forest. Laurie showed us some trees that were full of tutu bird nests, and we were able to see a tutu bird closeup. The bird looked very tame. We carried on along the track for our return journey back to the mountain bike carpark. There were some potholes that had been deliberately dug on this track to stop mountainbikers and trail bikers using this route and spoiling the environment. The track came out to Coast Road, and we continued along Puketapu Rd to South Block Rd. From there we followed a track with a final grunt through bush. When we reached the top we followed an old fenceline dropping down back to the mountain bike carpark, coming out at 2:45pm. We enjoyed soup and buns from the Ute Café at a picnic table in the carpark. There was a tutu bird with a brown egg, and this bird was seen to eat a piece of bread on the table.

Most of us went straight home afterwards, making sure not to miss out on the evening’s rugby. John, Hunter and Laurie went on to the Parakai Springs hot pools for a relaxing swim and were back home by the time the Crusaders began to thrash the Blues. Everyone had an enjoyable day’s workout and variety. COST: travel from The Bracken $6 DISTANCE: 13.5km AVERAGE SPEED: 3.8km/h MAXIMUM SPEED:  7.5km/h .