Otuataua Stonefields 1
Photo by Callan Bird

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Ōtuataua Stonefields wins summer tracks competition

Posted under: Tracks and trails

Published 15 March 2019

The winners of our Favourite Track competition are Thomas John Bailey and Judi Gallagher.

In first place Thomas John Bailey wrote about showing tourists the Ōtuataua Stonefields in Mangere: 

“There’s something amazing about seeing your home through the eyes of newcomers, in experiencing the normal as novel and the familiar as fantastical. It’s so easy to form a love-hate, and usually more of the former and less of the latter, relationship with a place where traffic and rates and rushing about are the mediums through which you engage with the world around you. "Strangers see none of that. They marvel at the city; how green it is, how pedestrian friendly, the surplus of kooky little corners, the personality.”

Thomas’s prize is a Kahuna 18 daypack filled with a lunch box and drink bottle, sunscreen, a survival bag and a towel.

In second place is Judi Gallagher’s entry about the Pipiwharauroa Trail near Raglan:

“From the carpark, the wind turbines look like they’re only a short distance away. Each time you look up they seem to be just ahead. It’s not until you get to the top and see them up close that you realise how massive these things are. The blades turn with an audible swoosh like the wings of an enormous bird.”

Judi’s prize is a Kahuna 18 daypack.

The Commission’s Favourite Track competition ran over the summer encouraging people to send in short stories or descriptions of their favourite track or trail for the year. We received entries from many corners of the country.