This article was first published in Tararua Tramper, June 2025, p.9.
Bothamley Park, Spinnaker Summit, Whitby Lakes & Conclusion Walkway
EM – Wednesday 9 April
Ten of us set out on a stunningly beautiful, still autumn day to enjoy the parks, hills, views, bush, birdsong and lakes of Porirua and Whitby. And so it transpired.
We started with the fairy walk in Bothamley Park from Dale Reserve in Porirua. When I took my granddaughters on this part of the walk recently, they were transfixed with the themes of the decorated stones and pithy sayings, inventing lots of stories as we passed the displays. Not so much, the Easy Medium trampers. They were more chilled in their responses, although the efforts of the Porirua community were not entirely wasted on them as we passed through to Bothamley’s tree-lined central path and up to Ascot Park. Lately, we have accessed Ascot Park through this route due to the lengthy closure of the route through Bothamley from Champion Street but now that the reconstruction is complete, I am keen to see how the upgraded Park presents.
From Ascot Park we did a short street walk to the beginning of the ascent to Spinnaker Summit. Here we stopped for morning tea, the photo opportunity depicted, and to take in the panoramic views of Whitby, Pāuatahanui, Cambourne and the West Coast.
We made our way down the other side of Spinnaker Summit and turned left to follow the Whitby walk until we arrived at the lower and upper Whitby lakes. The first time I led this tramp we hadn’t included the lakes but felt that the tramp needed to be longer. So when Alistair and I (non Whitbyites) re-recce’d the walk, we had reached the lakes and returned to Conclusion Walkway via street walking. How good was it then, to have the welcome input of the three Whitbyites which considerably improved parts of the routes to and from the Whitby Lakes? Instead, from the bottom of Spinnaker Summit we turned left onto the tree-lined Whitby Walkway and were guided back from the upper lake to Ascot Park through very lovely bush tracks which we had not discovered on our re-recce. Local knowledge and democracy working well! Once back at Ascot Park we ascended to the beginning of Conclusion Walkway, stopping for lunch and more views from the grassy knoll at its summit.
It just remained then to complete the Conclusion Walkway, cross over to Dale Reserve and depart after our five-hour tramp. The company of this lovely group of trampers made for a very enjoyable trip.
Linda Beckett (leader and scribe), Alistair Beckett, Trish Gardiner, Brian Hasell, Diane Kerse, Andy Leslie, Jeanette Martin, Marg Pearce, Janice Tijsen, Helena Weller Chew