Its a year now

Today is the 18th of July 2009. It's the first anniversary of Robin's death. I marked the day by walking from Karori West via Makara Road and Johnston's Hill to Mt Kaukau, along the ridges just west of Karori, Wilton, Chartwell and Ngaio. Although I had not walked to Mt Kaukau for at least fifteen years, Robin and I had walked from Mt Kaukau many times.

The overcast weather cleared as I walked and the afternoon became fine and warm until the final gentle climb to Mt Kaukau when the sun was low over the Tasman Sea. There was no wind and no movement of the Makara 'West Wind' turbines. The Ohariu valley farmland was a gleaming shade of green in the low winter sun.

When Robin and I first walked from Mt Kaukau to Johnston's Hill, in the 1970s, the walk was an informal route mostly over private farmland. Now, Wellington City Council has negotiated formal access for both walkers and mountain bikes, the route is sign-posted as are the ways off the main route to the suburbs, and it has a name. "the Skyline". Robin just used to call the walk 'Mt Kaukau to Johnston's Hill'.

I left home in Allington Road at 11:30am, started 'the Skyline' route at 11:45am at Makara Road, and reached Mt Kaukau at 3:15pm. I walked down to Nairnville Park (Cockayne Road) and caught a No 44 bus to the Railway Station then a No 3 bus back to Karori.