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Pukekohe Tramping Club opens Five Summits Track for its golden jubilee
Posted under: Tracks and trails, News from the field
Published 14 November 2019
You know you’re among good tramping folk when the formal ‘ribbon-cutting’ opening you’re attending involves cutting a length of supplejack with a pair of garden shears.
That’s how Franklin Local Board Deputy Chair Angela Fulljames declared Pukekohe’s new Five Summits Track open for walking and biking.
The official opening happened last weekend (10 November) at the Pukekohe Train Station. It was a rainy spring day, but as the saying goes, that didn’t dampen enthusiasm.
Pukekohe Tramping Club members, local identities and representatives from other Auckland tramping clubs all turned up to celebrate the first day of Auckland’s newest track. And to mark Pukekohe Tramping Club’s 50th birthday.
Perhaps the appealing smells coming from Pak N Save Pukekohe’s sponsored breakfast barbeque didn’t hurt either.
The Five Summits Track connects Pukekohe’s five volcanic summits of Pukekohe Hill, Belmont Rise, Cape Hill, The Rock and Rooseville Park. It starts from the Pukekohe Train Station making it easily accessible for people from around Auckland.
Walkers and bikers can do all five summits and 21 kilometres or just segments of the trail, taking in just the summits of their choosing. The trail’s clever design links paths, parks and reserves so that the trail walkers spend the minimum time on roads.
Pukekohe tramping club president, David Lawrie, opened proceedings. Lawrie was the club’s inaugural president, helping to form it in 1969. His return for another term as president for the club’s golden jubilee shows that both tramping and being part of a local community organisation are lifelong pleasures.
Lawrie was joined at the opening with Angela Fulljames, Hunua MP Andrew Bayly, other tramping club presidents, the club’s trails committee, local Lions and Rotarians, along with several founding members of the club, local historians who have contributed to the trail map and families.
The Walking Access Commission Ara Hīkoi Aotearoa, which supported the trail development with funding and advice, was represented by regional field advisor Dot Dalziell.
Pukekohe Tramping Club members have been working for months clearing weeds, erecting signs, and sorting out paths for the new trail. At the weekend trail opening over fifty of those club members and visitors headed out along the trail to complete one of three distances (6km loop, 10km loop, full 21km loop trail) for the first time.
Google Photo album of Five Summits working bee and official opening
Page last updated: 14 December 2023