Eight of us travelled from Glenfield for Kay's walk leaving in plenty of time expecting the traffic to be diabolical but amazingly we were over in about 30 mins, not sure where all the traffic was! We all met at Redoubt Road end of Totara Park, up high so quite nippy to start off with. However the weather progressed to a very mild day. 12 WOPpers in total including 1 new WOPper & a very warm welcome extended to you Barbara all the way from Waiuku! Hope you enjoyed yourself today. 

Kay's plan was to take us on some of the Totara Park tracks hopefully to the lookout etc. Unfortunately some were blocked off due to erosion. However that wasn't a problem many other tracks to traverse.

Totara Park is owned by Ak.C.C. & at times has stock grazing on some of the land. We didn't see stock but plenty of cowpats!. The area is 216 hectares(533 acres), has a network of walking & mountain biking tracks, some horse trails, streams & lovely bush. Nikau Palms & many tree species. Whereas the Botanical Gardens only cover 64 hectares (156 acres).

We joined up to the Puhinui Stream Forest Trail which links the native forest walking tracks between Totara Park & the Botanical Gardens. The full trail of Puhinui Stream track covers approx 4 kms. We also passed the site of the old Totara Park Youth Camp which was closed in 2001. I remember visiting it in the late 80-early 90's.

We came off the track at the bottom end of the Botanical Gardens & continued on under the motorway & walked along the Te Araroa trail for a short way then retraced our steps back & continued up thru the Gardens to the top end for our lunch break & a coffee fix from the cafe. Some of the interesting plants seen were the huge bromeliads in flower, Ligularias with lovely yellow flowers, Monkey Puzzle trees part of the Gondwana Arboretum. Pics attached include the trail, morning tea stop, our group & some of the plants that took my fancy.

After lunch headed back thru the gardens, Puhinui Stream Trail then thru one of the cycle trails & arrived back at the cars at 2pm which enabled a hassle free run for those of us heading back to the North Shore.  A total of about 11 kms walked. 

Thanks to Kay & everyone for a very interesting day. 

Colleen W.

To view the photos Click Here