A few months back, we arranged a visit to another Nordic Walking group at Acacia Cove Retirement Village, Wattle Downs, this group is one of the larger Nordic Walking groups, they have been well established for a number of years and the group is led by a lady called Jenny, a dedicated Nordic Walker and Walking Group Leader with heaps of infectious enthusiasm. This Sunday we returned the invitation for the group to visit us at Long Bay and later to join us for morning tea at the Sir Peter Blake Marine Education and Recreation Centre.
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| Sir Peter Blake Marine Education & Recreation Centre |
We use MERC on a regular basis for some of the training courses as the venue has wonderful facilities and is situated on the beachfront at Long Bay Beach. The centre offers a range of courses and classes in outdoor and marine education, for both school and corporate groups, it has conference and accommodation facilities; they have lectures and also run a programme for disadvantaged children.
Our walk started from the car park outside MERC and we walked part way along the Oneroa Track, into Cliff Road, along Cliff Road to Rewi Street, into Rock Isle Road, to Winston Cove, up the track and onto Waiake, there we gathered at Sharon Rd and crossed over and down a small walkway to Deep Creek Road and back along Beach Road to Long Bay.
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| Signs mark the way to the tracks & Homestead |
Eventually we stopped at Long Bay Park entrance and split into two groups, some went early for morning tea and the rest walked along the path to the park. We actually cut the walk short but if you continue along the road into the park you will come to a small turning circle and parking area; facing the circle is a gate, on the other side of the gate is a small track that runs further along and onto the Vaughan Homestead. Unfortunately, we didn’t actually make it that far which was a pity as the homestead has quite an interesting history. It was built in 1853 by George Vaughan, originally it was a farm cottage and it stayed in the family for a over a hundred years, it’s been altered a lot over time, it is now open to the public and contains a small museum run by the Torbay Historical Society. It would have been nice to take a stroll across the footbridge and up the hill to the homestead, which overlooks the park and beach, and futher down from the homestead there is a track through bush that can take you back through the park or onto the track over the cliff to Okura, alternatively just below the homestead there are a number of steps that rejoin the same track.
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| Vaughan Homestead |
We actually crossed the park and ventured out onto the sand, the tide was on its way out and the sand was firm enough to able to use the poles. The Acacia group were keen to use the beach as they walk mainly around the estuary at Acacia and although their walks are varied, there’s nothing quite like Torbay for its undulating walkways and beaches.
The Maori occupants of Long Bay named the area Oneroa, which translates as; long expanse of sand, indeed the beach is about 1 km long and the weather was superb, which was wonderful after the previous night’s heavy rainfall. The beach was really busy with lots of people walking dogs and young families taking the children out for a play on the beach.
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| Acacia Cove Meets North Shore Nordic Walkers |
After our stroll along the beach front, we made our way back to MERC and had our well deserved morning tea, for which I owe a special thank you to the ladies of both groups that helped serve and put away for us. We had a fabulous morning and we are now looking forward to a return visit to Acacia Cove for World Nordic Walking Day on Sunday 22 May.
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