Forty or so dedicated Walking for Wellness walkers showed up today for the second inter-village walk, this time at the Auckland Domain.
It was worth the wait – the rain and icy wind of the previous few days became a distant memory as the sun beat down on the War Memorial Museum and its surrounding grounds although the change of day did mean a few couldn’t make it.
Edmund Hillary proved their worth with the biggest turnout of 11 walkers and an Activities Coordinator, Toni Snell, who confidently led the way around the park. The distinctive pink flowers in her hair proved to be a perfect guiding beacon.
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Murray Halberg and Logan Campbell were next with around seven residents each, plus four residents from Miriam Corban, and a dedicated, self-motivated trio from Possum Bourne deserved a shout-out too.
"We wanted to make the effort," said Margaret Vlaar, who also took part in the Walking for Wellness challenge last year too.
Traffic held up the northerners, but the teams from Evelyn Page and William Sanders were determined and caught up with the rest, albeit it going in the other direction!
Margaret, Marie and Elaine made the effort to travel from Possum Bourne (above) while a dedicated bunch from Evelyn Page battled the notorious traffic to represent their village (below).
The walkers started off walking around the lower grounds in front of the Museum, walking through the rose garden and around the back of the building before heading along the sports fields to the cricket pavilion, then on past the duck pond and finishing up at the band rotunda for a team photo.
Edmund Hillary's Toni leads the way with the help of a pink peony (above) and onwards up to the Museum with some encouragement from Logan Campbell's Leanda Bekker (below).
Along the way there were constant remarks about the beautiful weather, and comments about the many sights to behold, including busloads of children arriving at the museum, an upturned tree base from a previous storm, the impressive sculptures and the ducks enjoying the temporary pond on the rugby fields!
With two inter-village walks down and two to go, the villages will reconvene at the Panmure Basin this Friday.
New and familiar faces meet up at the Domain for a sun-drenched inter-village walk.