The walk started with rather overcast conditions with the outlook to
expect rain on this walk. We were very fortunate to have a few light
showers that were not uncomfortable to walk in, in fact the conditions were rather humid. There were five of us on this walk, 4 left from  Silverstream and we met another around the Avalon area. The Silverstream  group made their way to County Lane where we joined up to the River  Trail. From there we progressed to the Silverstream Rail Bridge went  under the bridge and joined the River Trail on the Eastern Side of the  river. It was good to see all the new spring growth coming to life on  the Willows rather than a dormant sticks as they are when first planted.
We continued on our way and met up with our other Walker. We had a brief  water stop and moved on towards Lower Hutt. There were a couple of  diversions on the track owing to works being carried out. The diversions  took us to the western side of the River Trail, We made our way to  Melling, crossed over the bridge to the rear of the Harvey Norman  Building. By this time, we needed a coffee and food. We soon  discovered we had done about 15kms. An idea was put to the group, if we  did not want to go any further, we could have lunch in the Hutt and  catch a bus home. All agreed, we then found a delightful  cafe, had coffee and food and then made our way to the Bus St. On  arrival our bus was just coming in, how lucky was that. We go ourselves  seat in the back, were to enjoy the views around we were travelling.  Upon reaching Stokes Valley, we were told by our driver we needed to  leave the bus as there were some technical/engineering issues.  Fortunately, there was a replacement bus waiting there for us. We then  made our way to Silverstream without further incident. A good day out.

Lead: Denise Arcus

Walkers: Anne-Mette, Denise M, Helena and Judith