I was going to be a walker on this lovely but received a call from Linda, that she had been called in to work. Six club members met at Silverstream and made our way out to Wainuiomata.

The wind wasn’t too bad when we arrived but by the time, we made it to the lighthouse perched on its hilltop, the wind had picked up to 40 knots. This meant we didn’t explore the tops but kept to the extremely well-formed road. There has been a lot of work done in this reserve and quite a number of gravel roads laid, even up to the WWII lookout.

The only place we were following a track was past the old pumphouse and over the shale which has a narrow footpath through it and then up to the newly installed cattle stop to join the track up the hill. On our way to the gate, we were passed by a couple of horses, one was being ridden.

The houses are looking close to completion and hopefully sometime soon, they will be available for hire. All painted white and nothing like the abandoned houses of a few years ago. The friends of Baring Head have worked extremely hard.

It was a great walk for blowing the cobwebs away and the threat of rain held off, so we were very lucky. This walk was just over 7 kms.

Judith O’Leary