Churton Park Community Walkers

Newsletter April 28th 2024

Last week’s walks:

Some of the Wednesday walkers were held up in the traffic on their way to Miramar which meant a short delay before the walks commenced.  There were 2 pleasure pacers, 26 steady steppers and 25 fast footers for a good turnout of 53.  Coffee was enjoyed at the Chocolate Fish afterwards. The Thursday group took advantage of the Public Holiday and ventured out for their walk in the afternoon.  There were 7 walkers (plus, as always, Red) and they completed a walk of 7.2km around Churton Park.  On Friday 16 walkers were divided into teams for a long walk from the Wellington Railway Station back to the Churton Park New World. Points were awarded to each team for photographing certain items along the way.  A journey that was enjoyed by all participants.

Friday Food and Drinks.

Once again, the first Friday of the month is on the horizon and therefore we have our usual booking at Sprig and Fern, Tawa, from 5pm on Friday 3^rd May.  There is a new menu, so come along and enjoy an evening with fellow walkers.

Brian Vincent.
Convenor.

A reminder about walking arrangements:

After everyone has arrived at the starting location, each group should confirm its leader and also nominate a ‘tail-end Charlie’.  Please remember the medical kits – there is at least one for each group – and a reminder to take photographs. These allow us to record that day’s walkers in each group.  Please forward these by email.

Finally, just a reminder to swap telephone numbers amongst those with whom you travel to the starting point each week. A handy back-up for any late changes to arrangements.

Reminder:   Please ensure that you inform your group’s leader if you leave a walk partway through.

Walk Details for Wednesday May 1st 2024. 

This Week's Walks: 

Our next walks will take us around Whitby.  Andy Dunn has drawn up a new walk for the PPs.  The SS and FF walks are along routes that we have travelled previously.  Google suggests travelling time from Churton Park is about 15 minutes using SH1 (Transmission Gully route) and taking the Whitby exit.  With a 9.20am departure time for the walks from Whitby, anybody leaving from Churton Park should aim to leave no later than 9.00am.  Try to ensure that you have a contact number for others in your group so that you can call if you get held up in traffic.

PPs:  A 4.16km loop walk around the streets and parks of Whitby.  There are some ups and downs, but all well within your capabilities. You can see the walk here.

SSs:   A 6.53km loop walk, once again taking in the streets and some paths of Whitby.  Again a few ups and downs, but nothing you have not conquered previously. You can see the walk here.

FFs: An 8.41km loop which, being a FF walk, will have some minor challenges for the quadriceps.  You can see the walk on Mapometer here and on PlotaRoute here.

Parking:  Take SH1 north from Churton Park (Transmission Gully route) and leave SH1 at the Whitby exit.  Take the first exit at the roundabout and shortly after turn right to Whitby (Te Ara Kapehu).  At the next roundabout, take the second exit (ie. head straight ahead).  Third turn on the left is Discovery Drive which will lead you round to the entrance to Adventure Park (over the road from the Whitby shopping centre) which is an area we have parked in many times previously. There is more than ample parking for everyone.

Coffee:  Café is an individual choice - nothing is booked.  There are a couple of cafés in Pauatahanui - Groundup or Lighthouse Cinema.  Of course there are also Columbus at Mitre 10 Porirua or Simmer back at Churton Park. 

Bill Gaudie (pp Russell Paterson)

Website

When you open the website to view your walk have a quick look at the “Home Page”  This usually has new images each week showing views from one of our walks.

Cancellation

If the walks are cancelled an email will be sent out as early as possible but definitely before 8:00am.

Walk Schedules

You can look at the walk schedule for May 2024 here. 

Photos

Walkers - please try and take a photo of each group on walking days and email them to this link.  Preferably small size (around 450kb).  It has been great to receive a larger number of photos from PPs and SSs - keep them coming, please!

		CPCW Photos
		Fantastic April autumn weather continues in Wellington.  Last Wednesday most walkers travelled across the city to undertake a variety of walks radiating out from Crawford Green in Miramar. (Usless piece of trivia - Editor's mother, aged 5 years, moved into Number 8 Fife Lane, which radiates out from Crawford Green; while Number 12 is officially marked as NZ's first state house, the first family to move in were at Number 8.)  Despite the school holidays, Wellington's traffic was not obliging and caused a few stressful journeys across the city - but the weather and the walks were worth the stress. Paul Alpe has provided some non-sectarian photos showing members of the various groups mingling before heading off in different directions:
		And another photo from Paul of the SSs about to enter the Seatoun Tunnel:
		A couple of photos of the FFs courtesy of Hue Ng and Gay Hoffman respectively:
		And another image from Hue Ng showing Barry Prosser demonstrating the swimming style that would save him from an impending tsunami!  The others seem remarkably nonchalant about the impending disaster.
		On Thursday evening seven walkers stepped out around Churton Park.  This shot shows them on the bridge over the Porirua Stream, upstream from the Stebbings Valley dam.  (Thanks to Gillian Mills for this photo.)
		Friday's planned walk along the Manawatu Gorge track was cancelled due to the weather.  Instead, Jane Gaudie created a "mystery" walk.  16 walkers took the #1 bus to Wellington Station.  At this point they were divided into three groups and instructed to make their way back to Churton Park Village - on foot!  Like a rogaine, they were given a number of tasks to complete along the journey with points accrued for completion of these tasks which needed to be documented with a "selfie" showing all group members at that point.  Tasks included visiting 2 railway stations, with additional points if a train was present; a yellow letterbox; finding a miniature schnauzer, a garden gnome, a church, an oak tree; reaching the top of Mt Kaukau; and doing all this in the shortest distance possible.  Much fun was had along the way.
		Some photos of the winning team taken by Gay Hoffman and David Pegram:
		Some moments captured of another team with photos provided by Alex Ng; note their creativity in providing a shot with a miniature schnauzer and their dedication to the task of finding gnomes - on loan at Mitre 10!
		Finally, some photos of the team that were first to arrive at Churton Park (sadly, no points were given for best time )  These photos of the TipTop team - the suavest, coolest gentlemen of the day - were taken by Keith Thomas.  The TipTop team - apart from their sartorial elegance - think they deserved bonus points for initiative.  The owners of a four month French bulldog were willing to rename their dog (Winston) as Mini (first name) Shnauzer (family name) for the duration of the selfie.  But no points for this were forthcoming from the adjudicator.  Huge thanks to Sue Dick who delivered a neighbour's gnome to the TipTop group en route.  You cannot say that any of the groups did not try to meet their brief...
		Just For Fun I am concerned that the Newsletter "funnies" may be seen to be a little demeaning to those of us "of a certain age", but there is no denying the humour.  The first photo is thanks to an observant David Newton and the cartoon is courtesy of the editor's sister with whom he regularly exchanges "ageist" humour!

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