i have now figured out what is going on. I was getting an entry "minty's steps" which was always the default and i could not remove it (by swiping left). It turns out that that is the name of an enclosed sea bathing area in downtown Auckland where i live. I have never heard the name even though I was well aware of its existence of the facility. A far more useful name would be "Viaduct Harbour" which is what the area is know as.
I couldn't delete it because it was the "current location ". There is a odd symbol on top right corner that presumably designates current location. In the documentation there is no explanation of what the various parts of the display mean. I guess it is supposed to be obvious.