50 CCET members and their families and friends gathered at Greenlane ready to head off to the Miranda Wetland. After we arrived, Shorebird Centre Manager Keith Woodley gave a talk on the importance of the wetland, how the various wader birds fly all the way from Alaska and Siberian to New Zealand. Later when we went out to the shore, everybody was excited to see the godwits and red knots which have fed on shellfish in the mudflats for the past months and are now ready to return north. There was also a big group of wrybill - the only bird with a beak that turns to the left.

After lunch, Estella Lee led us to the Karangehake Gorge, to walk through a tunnel that was built during the gold mining age.