Seventeen walkers successfully found their way to the car park at the end of Ladbrooke Drive in uttermost Newlands. Nobody in the group was familiar with the walk, or the area, and so we were intrigued. Crossing the grass of Waihinahina Park on a beautiful morning, we admired the fine view of the harbour before entering on the well-formed Te Ara Papararangi track. The track winds along the contour, round stream heads and out towards the sea.
Seventeen walkers successfully found their way to the car park at the end of Ladbrooke Drive in uttermost Newlands. Nobody in the group was familiar with the walk, or the area, and so we were intrigued. Crossing the grass of Waihinahina Park on a beautiful morning, we admired the fine view of the harbour before entering on the well-formed Te Ara Papararangi track. The track winds along the contour, round stream heads and out towards the sea.
An hour’s walking brought us to the track’s end and an even vaster view of the harbour, as we leaned on a fence overlooking the motorway. Here we could see across to Eastbourne, north to the Hutt, and south across to the airport.
Retracing our steps, we found the track a little more up than down before having lunch back in the park, where our munching was enhanced by arguably the best eating view we have enjoyed. A subsequent questionnaire found that it had been a Goldilocks walk which a few found hard, a few easy and most - just right. Report by Paul Kitteridge
