Summit mountain climbing last day of holidays

I enjoyed my last day with my children before starting work again for the new year next week. We decided to walk up our local mountain with a summit of approximately 100+ metres above sea level. Nothing like the Mt Everest that I read about in Bear Grylls' book but still offered the experience of climbing a mountain.

You might be able to spot my eldest who is more adventurous, like her dad, and wanted to climb directly up the mountain path, that you may be able to trace, to the summit. With my other two  children, we decided to go around the longer way and a lot easier for my youngest (3 year old) to negotiate. (I have a poem that I wrote about a childhood experience that I had that I'll post later on in the poetry section.)

After about a 30 minute+ walk, we made it to the trig station on the summit and enjoyed the panoramic view of Auckland as well as viewing the local scenes. My eldest had been waiting there for some time and we were able to share about our experiences of having taken them to play local club soccer and softball (baseball) a couple of years ago as well as ballet classes when they were younger.

I've majored in Geography since high school and shared some of the stories that I remembered growing up locally and how things have changed since then. Like how there used to be oxidation ponds (sewage treatment centre) that used to smell there and how the local council is hoping to develop that area into a recreational area for sport.

After the climb we returned to our car taking different paths, my elder two down the steeper slope and I took my young one on my back and walked back down the way we came as she was tired from the sun and the long walk. It was a good thing that we had brought along cool drinks and then we decided to pack our gear and go to the local swimming pools to cool down after 5pm when most people had left. What a day, with neat memories and rewarded with a fun time at the pools.