Walks from Devonport

Jean and Alan have for some time been accustomed to going out each Saturday ( usually ) afternoon for a walk. We started to keep a record of where we'd been when someone complained to Jean that there were no walks within easy reach of Devonport.

It's true that it takes around an hour's drive to reach many of these walks, but that's one of the penalties for living in Devonport.

Most of the walks take us around two to three hours. Some of the exceptions are noted, but there's no guarantee.

What's in the table.

Briefly, not very much. The intention was to remind us where we'd been so that we could tell anyone who might ask. It also helps to identify photographs; it takes me some time to get through a 36-exposure film, and trying to identify a photograph of bush some months after the event, when you've been looking at bits of bush every other week, is not too easy without something to jog the memory.

REGION, PLACE, NAME OF PATH, PART OF PATH : Fairly obvious : rough geographical area, specific place within the area, what the path is called ( should be what it's called in the reference material, if any ), which part of the path we traversed. Most of our walks include bits of a few tracks; I list each bit separately, but they should be read as a sequence.

YEAR, MONTH, DATE : Even more obvious : when we went.

SOURCE : Reference documents, if any, or other information on how we found the path. Each should have a link to a more complete specification of the reference. We've picked up these documents over the years, mostly from information centres around the region. Be warned that many of them are very old - we've been here quite a long time. The value of the documents varies from enormously helpful to quite useless.

L&S MAP : Sheet number and map reference to ancient Lands&Survey ( or other ) maps. There should be something like a linear transformation to references on the new maps, but I haven't worked it out. For a series of connected walks, I usually give only the first reference.

COMMENT : What I felt moved to write at the time - not guaranteed to be of any use at all.

WAITAKERE : Of special mention is the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park; this is a publicly-owned park, managed by the body which has had various names since our arrival in Devonport but is now ( 2004 ) the Auckland Regional Council ( I think ). It appears very often in our lists, because there are lots of walks there. It isn't high enough to be called mountainous, but is certainly hilly, mostly covered in native bush, and big enough to get lost in. Local councils keep trying to snip bits off to build houses for people with too much money, but by and large these efforts are resisted, and should be resisted at all costs. The park is a jewel.

Tracks in the Waitakere are listed with numbers, which are their reference numbers in the successive park maps produced by the ARC. Unfortunately, these numbers seem to have been not quite stable; some paths have changed numbers, and some numbers have changed paths. I've used the numbers from the 2002 map ( because when I wanted to write them down we'd given away the 1996 map to someone ). The numbers are significant only because some time in 2003 we started to work through the tracks in numerical order, more or less.

THE WALKS : Originally there was just one list appearing about here. Around 2002 that started to get a bit unweildy; in 2003 I split it into separate years. The split form is weildier, or it would be if there were such a word, but admittedly less convenient for searching. Therefore, I assert that some day there will be something in the nature of an index. Do not hold your breath.

Meanwhile :

Walks in 1999;

Walks in 2000;

Walks in 2001;

Walks in 2002;

Walks in 2003.

Walks in 2004.

SOURCES

These details might help you to find the documents to which I've referred in the table above. I think I've included all the useful information I have. Most of the leaflets are not dated; I have suggested both to the North Shore council and to the Auckland Regional Council that dates should be printed. Dates displayed in italic are dates on which we certainly had the documents.

Alan Creak,
2004 March.