Churton Park Community Walkers
Newsletter 1st June 2025
Last week:
I believe that there is a perception amongst some of the walkers that the most intrepid of our five groups is the Friday walkers. This is not correct. The true title of 'Intrepid Walkers' belongs to the Thursday Evening walkers who regularly turn out on cold, dark winter evenings to pound the paths and streets of the northern suburbs. This week two of the most intrepid donned wet weather gear and completed a 5.6km circuit around Churton Park.
The weather on Wednesday was threatening, but that did not stop a good turn-out for local walks. The Friday walkers, who are used to exercising their leg muscles (and sometimes the upper body gets a work out, too, in steep terrain), were challenged this week by having to exercise their brains as well on a mystery walk organised by Jane. We started at Wellington Railway station and, by following two pages of rhyming clues, we eventually arrived at Island Bay. Even though the early group made a couple of minor detours we still arrived at Island Bay before the later group, which of course is of no consequence as Friday walks are not a race. (Ed: Yeah, right!)
A huge thank you to Bill and his team of volunteers for running a training course on how to download walks onto phones. If you were at the session and feel in need of a 'booster' there are a number of experts in the group who would be willing to help you, perhaps over coffee on a Wednesday. If you were not at the session and you find yourself regularly walking with a group of people who become detatched from the main group and have no map on their phones it might be time to consider upskilling.
A number of people have received a spam email supposedly from a CPCW committe member. If you receive a suspicious email do not reply, but instead send a fresh email to the person concerned asking if they have recently contacted you.
David Pegram
Convenor
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.
Walk Details for Wednesday 4th June:
This Week's Walks: Walks have moved back to one of our popular spots - Khandallah. There is a complication in that some walkers have to attend a CPR refresher course at 10:00am. This mainly effects the FF. As there are only a few from the SS and PP groups attending, their walk will go ahead as usual and these walks will start at 9:20am from the designated starting point and those attending the course from those two groups will have to miss out on their walk. Most of the FFs will try to do both the walk and the course. To do this a shortened walk is planned (easily extended for those not attending the course) and this shortened walk will start at 9:00am from the designated starting point.
PPs: A 4.07km loop walk that includes a short climb. This walk has been carried out in the past. It does include a track in the bush which has always been dry and straightforward. The walk can be shortened as you go if required. You can see the walk here.
SSs: A 5.03km loop walk that was prepared by Peter Bushnell some time ago and walked many times by him. So this is a repeat of an earlier walk. You can see the walk here.
FFs: A 4.59km loop walk. The walk should easily be finished to give time to those attending the course to get to the venue before 10:00am. Others walkers could readily extend the walk as much as they wish. They could even go up to the top of Kaukau! You can see the walk on Mapometer here and on Plotaroute here.
Parking: Parking for all three groups is at the Nairnville Park carpark and nearby streets. The FFs could park nearer to the CPR venue and walk to the start of the walk if they so wished.
Coffee: There is no café booked. Walkers can make their own choices. There are a few cafés nearby and, of course, Simmer at home and Thyme near to home.
Happy walking.
Russell Paterson
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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Why you walk:
Excerpt taken from NZ Listener May 31: "Walk for the heart: People who spend more time walking at a brisk pace may be at lower risk of heart rhythm abnormalities such as atrial fibrillation, according to UK and Australian research published in the journal Heart. The researchers used data from more than 420,000 people who either reported their own walking speed or who wore an activity tracker, and found that a faster self-reported walking pace and more time spent walking at a moderate or brisk pace were associated with a lower risk of developing irregular heart rhythms." Only an "association study", so not "causal", but it is another good reason to get up and come out on our walks!!
CPCW Calendar of Events
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A reminder to those who have registered who have all been contacted by Jane to confirm; this class is FULL.
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 Ambulance
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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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Wednesday dawned cloudy and chilly - not an auspicious start to our walking. However, the rain held off and the three groups were able to tread the streets of Churton Park and see what had changed since they last ventured around the footpaths of home. The photos this week were kindly provided by Mike Drain, Janet Dunbar and John Houghton. Janet provided her photo of the SSs with the accompanying title: "Today's Motley Crew". Her comment was endorsed by Rowena Rowe, but I could not possibly comment!
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As David has commented, two very brave Thursday walkers went out on a very wet evening and walked around Churton Park. Given the rain, it is not surprising that they did not take a photo!!
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Friday walkers headed out in two groups on a "mystery" walk planned by Jane Gaudie. The walk started at Wellington Railway Station and finished at Shorland Park in Island Bay. In the space between they covered some 12km of ups and downs, incorporating a sizeable chunk of the Southern Walkway. Jane's instructions, in the form of some very wordy and cryptic poems, made for hard going, but everybody made it to the end!
Many thanks to our photographers Stu Lavin and Bill Gaudie (who apologises to Annie Chan for his inept framing of the photo which caught only a sliver of her).
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 taken last week.
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Before Wednesday's walk, a group of 27 walkers attended a training session on using phones to track a walk. Thank you to Janet Tyson who took these candid photos of the group:
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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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Walk Schedules: You can look at the walk schedule for June 2025 here.
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Reminder: Please ensure that you inform your group’s leader if you leave a walk partway through.
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Cancellations: If the walks are cancelled an email will be sent out as early as possible but definitely before 8:00am.
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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