Another amazing day out with the tramping club. The skies looked dark and threatening, and there were showers nearer Orewa to start, but a nice brisk breeze blew the black clouds away without dropping their contents on us.
    A great group of members and fit newbies started the day bright and early, catching the low tide at eight am at Army Bay.
    We started by taking in the amazing geology, with pushed-up rock faces, and you can only imagine how much the ground would have been rocking and rolling back then to create these impressive formations.
    We had a quick stop at Pink Bay for morning tea as we were making such good time, even on the slippery, rocky surface. Then onto the point where we should have all ended up with very wet feet, but to our surprise the tide was so low that we were able to scoot around the edge. No scrambling up and over there.
    After quickly completing the bit around the end of the peninsula, we headed inland, to the perimeter Tiritiri Track and a bit of hill work to wake up the muscles and lungs, with our goal of enjoying an early lunch overlooking the stunning scenery at the summit lookout.
    Even though we had a big group of sixteen, we moved at a good speed and were able to stay as one group. We went through the bush tracks, just to make sure we ticked off as done all except two short tracks.
    To top off the day, most of the group posed for a photo under the huge macrocarpa at the end of Te Haruhi Bay. There was one bit where we walked over the muddy cattle paddocks to the picturesque Waterfall Gully Track and the pretty waterfall, via another track where multitudes of tui were having a feeding frenzy on karo, kowhai and other blooms.
    Our group of happy trampers having completed 16.66 kilometres, with a few extras tacked on for the waterfall group. (See below for map of our circuitous route.)—Imogen