As always, YCQM reflects some portion of my One Little Word for 2015, Serenity. This week it was about re-charging myself, body and soul, ready for the new working week.
Yesterday we combined family time (sans B, who spent the weekend at his friend’s new home & told me this morning (by phone thankfully) that his clothes really need washing and they are really, really ripe due to helping carry a dead sheep – oh yay!) with Father’s Day, Steptember and my love for the Ignite shoes that Puma gave us last week. Zac found a walk in the Ranges book that I brought Si a few years ago (it’s here: https://www.paperplus.co.nz/book/walking-the-waitakere-ranges-9781869664268 or you can google search individual walks) and we drove over the hills to Titirangi.
Because Si has his knee strapped up, we parked at the Shaw Road carpark, which is roughly halfway along the walk (the red marker). We walked towards Titirangi, turned around then completed the walk.
Exhibition Drive is now closed off, but it used to be part of the road from Titirangi village, over the Waitakeres to Swanson. It’s now been replaced by Scenic Drive, but a few driveways still come off it. But because it was a road, it’s wide enough & smooth enough for running, pushchairs, wheelchairs and cycling. There are a few parts when you can see the old road base poking thru but it’s very safe for the whole family.
The road follows the old tramway, which was set up to transport parts of the pipeline that used to bring water down from the hills. The cast iron pipes are visible for most of the walk; they were forged in England in 1912, shipped to Auckland port, railed to New Lynn, horse & dray to Titirangi village then the horse-drawn tram finished the journey to the site.
At Jacobson’s Tunnel (length 527m, all by hand!!) you can still see part of the tram tracks. There are valves along the pipeline that the kids had to play with, either for removing caught air or isolating water at that part of the pipeline. It’s OK – these sections aren’t in use!
One of the felled trees on the path – Zac & Mase look like midgets! We couldn’t count all the rings.
And the view at the end over the Manukau Heads. Gorgeous.
I couldn’t get inspired this week, even tho it was the final week. The loose ends from the weekend kept haunting me – and they aren’t even my loose ends!
sewscrapmuse 