| Leader | Mentor | Understudy | Tail Ender | |
| Standards | Alan H | Dave R | Kate | Janne |
| Alternates | Nick | Jan Bbr | Norma | Leonie |
As the fully packed bus, 50 trampers and driver Geoff, headed northwards for a new walk, many remarked on the gift of another beautiful, clear, sunny, windless Canterbury day. Bill S. sent round birthday treats. Perfect, what more could we ask for??
We were heading for the Pegasus Trail which links Kaiāpoi to Waikūkū Beach and is located mostly in the Tūhaitara Coastal Park which stretches from the Waimakariri River to the Ashley River. Small settlements are dotted along this coastal area.
WAIKŪKŪ was home to a rope and twine works using flax from local swamps. This closed in 1987. An annual sand sculpture competition is held here in January.
PEGASUS TOWN was proposed in 1997 and should house 6000 people when finished,
WOODEND was named because it was on the end of Maori bush or after an early settler, Thomas Wooding. No one knows for sure.
KAIĀPOI with nearly 12,000 people is the largest. This was a precolonial pa run by Ngai Tāhū nobleman, Tūrākautāhi. The pā was a great centre of knowledge, economics and natural resources with a highly complex social structure. It was decided to swing food (kai) over the pā’s wall (poi) as they were in the middle of a swamp. Hence Kaiapoi meaning “ economics”.
The Alternates disembarked first at Pegasus Beach followed by the Standards further northwards at Waikuku Beach. The beach was isolated apart from a couple of horses and riders as we headed to Pegasus Beach. Small surf was running on the outgoing tide of the Canterbury Bight and a few seagulls squawked overhead.
After morning tea on Pegasus Beach, we walked for a short time towards Pegasus Town before turning onto the Tūtaepātū Trail just after the horse trail. We passed the Te Kōhanga Wetlands (near Pegasus Town) and viewed the Tūtaepātū Lagoon (a vision of early swampy Christchurch) before skirting a caravan park in Woodend.
Here we returned to the beach until we stopped at the Pines Beach exit for lunch. Only a couple of cyclists came into view as we headed across a bridge and out to the Waimākāriri mouth. Walking on the top of a long stopbank, punctuated with sewage ponds and fishing spots, brought us into Kaiāpoi where the bus was waiting, and the Alternates were out exploring Kaiapoi. Quite a few us visited Paris for the Weekend, a café in the relocated railway station.
It must be said that this walk had an abundance of toilet facilities along the way for which Moira was grateful after a bird dropped a present on her head !!!!
