Churton Park Community Walkers
Newsletter 25th May 2025
Last week:
Who would have thought that a walk in Tawa would have been such a drawcard? I suspect that our numbers on Wednesday broke previous records and, if not, they would have been very close. The exact figures were: 10 PPs, 40 SSs and 34 FFs making a total of 84 walkers.
There were six Thursday walkers who walked 5.5km around Churton Park in quite respectable weather.
Nine Friday walkers took on the challenge of climbing Mt McKerrow, a 16.5km walk with an elevation gain of 800m and some great views of Wellington on the descent. Meanwhile, four other Friday walkers completed a 13km walk to the Orongorongo River and back with a morning tea brew-up on the deck of Turere Lodge (together with date slice).
CPCW 12th Anniversary Dinner
The 12th CPCW Anniversary Dinner will be held on Saturday July 19th 2025, 6.00pm at Johnsonville Bowling Club, 34 Frankmore Avenue, Johnsonville.
Catering will be by Dunsheas Deli of Khandallah. Drinks can be purchased from the bar. Please bring cash for the raffle. The proceeds from the raffle are our only income for the year and offset the running costs of the walking group.
The cost of the dinner is $45 per person. Please make payment to, CPCW BNZ A/C: 02-0524-0233091-000. (This bank account number changed two years ago - if you have CPCW Bank Details saved please ensure it is the current account number.)
Payment is due by Saturday 5th July, but payment asap would be helpful for organisational purposes.
Gold Coin Walks
Occasionally one of the walking group has needed the services of Wellington Free Ambulance and it has been suggested that we make a donation to support them. Before the walk on Wednesday 18 June we will be passing the hat around for any gold coin you might like to contribute. If this is successful we will repeat it at Christmas.
David Pegram
Convenor.
Walk Details for Wednesday 28th May:
This Week's Walks: Definitely local this week with all walks around the tracks, paths and footpaths of Churton Park. The walks will start at 9:20am from the designated starting point which, in this case, is the Churton Park New World car park. The SSs walk is a repeat of the valley floor walk and both the PPs and FFs have walks that are variations of previous walks.
PPs: A 4.07km loop walk that includes some quite gentle hills. The walk is a new version of some previous walks. You can see the walk here.
SSs: A 5.04km loop walk that takes in the length of the valley floor tracks. A repeat of an earlier walk. You can see the walk here.
FFs: A 6.40km loop walk. The walk starts and ends in Churton Park, but also sneaks into part of Johnsonville. The surfaces are all good and there are a few hills, of course. You can see the walk on Mapometer here and on Plotaroute here.
Parking: Parking for all three groups is in the Churton Park New World carpark. Please try to park in the areas well away from the supermarket, leaving the closer areas for shoppers.
Coffee: We will inform Simmer that some of us will be coming in for coffee and perhaps a snack. Thyme is also nearby.
Happy walking.
Russell Paterson
“DON’T LET TECHNOLOGY GET THE BETTER OF YOU!!”
🚶♀️🚶♀️🚶♀️🚶🏾🚶🏾📲📲📱📱📲📲 🚶🏾🚶🏿♂️🚶🏿♂️🚶🏿♂️🚶🏿♂️
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A Training Session on the use of Mapping Apps for Walks:
Wednesday 28 May, 8.15am at Churton Park Community Centre
Both the Steady Steppers group and the Fast Footers group have increased in size. Each group contains walkers with very different walking speeds and, as a result, the groups are getting spread out over a significant distance. Slower walkers feel under pressure to 'keep up' and faster walkers feel frustrated that they must stop to let others catch up.
The situation can be improved greatly if more people within each group use a mapping app on their phone and are able to lead any sub-groups at a speed which they find comfortable.
I am organising a training session which will include:
- a review of available free mapping apps for both Android & Apple phones and how to download these
- how to download a walk from the CPCW newsletter
- how to import that walk into the mapping app on your phone and use it to track the walk.
If you download the walk to one of the apps, then you can follow the route when you walk without using any data on your phone - IT IS FREE!! The training session will be quite informal - I have enlisted the help of a few walkers who are regular users of these apps and they will be able to help you on a “One on One” basis.
The session will finish in plenty of time for the walk which is around Churton Park. Apologies for the early start, but it was a time when we could book the Community Centre on a day that coincides with a local walk.
Please email me to advise of your intention to attend: wmgaudie13@gmail.com
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Advance Notice: Friday Night Drinks
6th June, Johnsonville Club
Usual time: 5ish
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Our monthly gathering will be held on Friday June 6th at the Johnsonville Club. For those of you who haven’t been to the club, Johnsonville Club is situated at the top of Norman Lane (click here for a map). It has plenty of parking both underneath and alongside the Club, as well as parking in the old Motor Doctors building.
The club requires non-members to sign in. I will be on hand to sign-in those who are not members, however anyone who is a member of an affiliated organisation such as RSA does not need to sign in.
The club offers Happy Hour 3-6pm and an extensive dinner menu for those wanting to eat ($20-$26 for mains).
For future note, Friday night drinks will be held at the Club for the rest of this year.
Rowena Rowe
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CPCW Calendar of Events
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Wednesday 28th May
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Training: "Learn to use your phone to follow your walk"
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Wednesday 4th June 10am to 12noon
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CPR Training, Khandallah Town Hall
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Friday 6th June
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Friday Drinks @ Johnsonville Club
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Wednesday 18th June
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Gold Coin Fundraiser for Wellington Free Ambulane
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Saturday 19th July
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CPCW Anniversary Dinner
Johnsonville Bowling Club
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Wednesday 5th November -
Sunday 9th November
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CPCW Away Walk - Methven
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Wednesday 3rd December
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Christmas Lunch @ The Pines
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CPCW Photos
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As David has commented, Wednesday saw a possible record number of walkers out on the streets of Tawa - a frightening sight for the locals and a challenge to accommodate everyone into a photo. However, our skilled photographers were successful and we have photos of the PPs, SSs and FFs taken by Mike Drain, Rowena Rowe and Hue Ng - thank you.
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Hue Ng also provided this photo of the Thursday walkers out in Churton Park and well wrapped up for the temperature of the evening.
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On a stunning autumn day, a total of 13 walkers headed out in the Remutaka Forest Park, setting out from the Catchpool carpark and along the Orongorongo Track. Two groups of 9 walkers branched off and climbed 500m over 3.5km to reach the summit of Mt McKerrow before heading back to the cars along the Clay Ridge Track (total distance walked ~15km). Demonstrating some sanity, another group of 4 walkers headed past the Mt McKerrow turn-off and continued walking to Turere Hut where they enjoyed a rather lavish looking morning tea. If the CPCW committee had a Health & Safety Officer, there may have been ructions given the proximity of the morning tea break to an area of land subsidence - I won't tell if you don't!! 
Many thanks to our photographers: Wendy Bentley, Duncan McMillan and Keith Thomas.
Home Page: Don't forget to take a quick look at the “Home Page” - there is a stunning photo of the view from Mt McKerrow.
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And a little bit of history... When organising a meeting at the Churton Park Community Centre last week, I was asked to take an award that the group received - Runner-up in the Health and Well-being section of the Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards 2015. Well done to the team who got the group off the ground.
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Walkers: please try and take a photo of each group on walking days and email them to this link. Preferably use a small size (around 450kb).
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Just for Fun
Reminder
Please ensure that you inform your group’s leader if you leave a walk partway through.
Cancellations
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 2025 here.
Our Sponsors
A big thanks to our sponsors. Please support these businesses that support us.
Contacts