Scounts – Paekakariki Escarpment walk

We had a great time on the walk.  The weather was kind, with warm winds, not too strong, and cloudy skies but no rain.  All trains had been cancelled.

We arrived at Paekakariki about 11am, having left my car behind at  Pukerua Bay, and parked Gary’s car in the Paekakariki station carpark.  We walked down the platform and over the railway crossing to get to the start of the walk, which is just south of the town.

Then, we took our time to walk the length of the escarpment, stopping for lunch at a convenient place about halfway, where there was a table, and an information board about the building of the railway and its tunnels.  We could see the workers on the track below, where they were dealing with the railway track maintenance.

All along the track, there were wonderful views over the ocean, and in many places the track passed through short sections of forest trees, where we could hear the birds.  Above us on the hills were many sheep.

The track itself wanders up and down the sides of the escarpment, sometimes near the top, and other times well down, in one place right next to the railway.  There were steep sections, with wooden staircases, and long sections of mild inclines on a narrow, well formed track.  Several other groups were also on the track, and we stopped to let them pass.

Towards the end, we walked past the now redundant Muri station, where we crossed the railway on a level crossing and made our way back to my car.  I then drove Gary back to Paekakariki to recover his car, whist Charlotte kept the youth busy visiting the local grocery shop.

We thoroughly enjoyed our walk.

Kaitoke Group Camp

Happy Easter.  

Last weekend 45 of us camped out at Kaitoke Regional Park.  It was amazing, and the weather played along so that our youth (and adults) got the full experience.  We all worked together to set up camp, prepare meals, clean up, play games, go for a hike, swim in the river, play the X (S) games, cook on an open fire, and pack camp up, even coming back to the scout hall to unload all the equipment.  And the big kicker was that we all had fun doing it.  

Thank you. Many of us faced challenges and had the support to succeed from peers/Kaiārahi/parents, collecting lifelong skills along the way – ka pai.