In the Steps of Jack Leigh

A series of muddy ventures into the mid-winter Waitakeres coincided with a re-reading of the classic "Strolling with Jack Leigh", and I decided on a project which, even if it didn't put me in touch with the first hangehange flower for the year, would at least get me out and about, more or less clean-shod, and with something to focus on: and I repeat, walking needs a focus of some sort.

I would retrace his steps as far as it was possible and see what was left of Jack Leigh's Auckland, what had gone and what had arrived since.

In the 1970's Jack Leigh wrote a series of columns for the Auckland Star, taking the reader on wonderfully researched walks through Auckland city and suburbs, commenting on landscape, on history and on the people who had created both. In 1977, t hese talks were published as "Strolling with Jack Leigh", a minor classic long out of print. In this series, some 30 years later, I have followed in his footsteps armed with his notes and a camera to find out what has happened to the Auckland he described so well.

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