Wairarapa

Since I made a careless statement in my last blog post about possibly riding the whole of the Rimutaka Rail Trail some time, John has been agitating for us to do just that. So the night before last, with a fine day forecast, we agreed to give it a go yesterday (15 February).

What we couldn’t agree on was the direction in which to do it. Part of the reason was the logistics of getting to the start and getting home at the end. The Wairarapa train line is a commuter service, allowing local residents to get into Wellington in the morning and home again at night. So there are very few choices.

One option was to take an early train from Petone to Maymorn, ride the Rimutaka trail, over the top, down the Wairarapa side, bike 12 km to Featherston, and take the late afternoon train back from there. This would mean an easy ride to the top, and a steep one down to Cross Creek. This was my preferred way.

The other option, which John preferred, was to take the early train to Featherston, bike to Cross Creek, ride the trail from the Wairarapa side, with the steep (but shorter) bit first, and then an easy ride back from the Summit, and take the train back from Upper Hutt. This had two advantages: the prevailing wind would be behind us; and we would end up in Upper Hutt, from where we could take a Hutt Valley train, which has services every half hour rather than just a couple at the end of the day. But I balked at the idea of having to do the steep bit, having to walk and push the bikes uphill at Siberia.

In the end we compromised, and scrapped the idea of using the train. We would go on a “recce” (reconnoitre) first. We’d drive to Featherston, and on to Cross Creek, bike up the steep start of the track from there, see how bad Siberia was, and go back. Then we would go to Greytown and ride the easy Woodside trail loop.

But it all panned out quite differently.

After coffee at Featherston’s Everest Café, we headed out towards Cross Creek on Western Lake Road. We noticed that there was a dedicated, unsealed (lime sand?) bike track alongside the road. It had to divert onto the road every time there was a one-lane bridge over a stream, and there were many. But at each bridge there was a warning to the cyclists to “give way to oncoming road traffic”. For the motorists, there were signs well ahead of each bridge, warning them to “Watch for cyclists”. But we didn’t see any cyclists at all.

It is just over 10 km to Cross Creek, but we overshot the turn-off. When we realised that we’d missed the turn-off, we decided to keep going down to the coast, to see what the other end of the Rimutaka Cycle Trail was like. 

It was a long way, 36 km from Cross Creek to Ocean Beach. But the road is good, and some of the scenery is very pretty. Part of it skirts along Lake Wairarapa, which actually does not look very inviting, as it is brown, and surrounded by flat land.

Eventually we got a view of the sea, the road changed to gravel, and we came to a sign saying “Grader working next 5 km”. Down a steep gravel road, Ocean Beach Road, all bumpy corrugations from the grader’s metal caterpillar tracks. Across a bridge – a short bit of sealed road – then onto more gravel road. The grader moved out of the way to let us and another car go past, and along to a rough stony area to park.

It is a beautiful, wild coast, and I just wanted to have a look, maybe go for a short walk, take some photos, then turn around and go back, but John was determined that we should bike some of the Ocean Beach Road. Aargh!

I just wanted to look and take photos, but John was determined to go for a ride

While we were getting the bikes ready, the grader went past and headed down the road. So we had to carefully pick our way on the freshly graded surface. The grader had stirred up the gravel, and left corrugated tracks and strips of gravel and soft sand that you had to negotiate getting across to get from one solid surface to another, if it became too stony. I must admit I didn’t much enjoy it.

The graded surface of the road was not nice to bike on (photo by John)

Luckily we didn’t go very far, as the road went through a stream. Not that it was deep or scary, but that sort of terrain is for young and fit people riding well-sprung bikes with big, fat wheels – not for the grey and clumsy on folding bikes with small wheels. And we preferred to keep our feet dry.

The grader had gone beyond the stream (photo by John)

We stopped short of the stream, and clambered up a narrow track that led to a wooden platform, that seemed to have no other purpose than as a lookout and place to take photos from.

We stopped short of the stream and left the bikes …

… and clambered up a short track

The view was certainly dramatic and expansive. Ahead was Palliser Bay, stretching from Cape Palliser on the left, to the Wainuiomata Coast on the right. Looking inland was the wide, shambling valley of a small stream – the Wharekauhau Stream – with some impressive looking cliffs. John remembers investigating the geology of these cliffs with a School of Earth Sciences student some years ago.

Looking towards Cape Palliser (photo by John)

The Rimutaka Cycle Trail follows this coast towards Wainuiomata (photo by John)

The Wharekauhau Stream has a wide riverbed, but not much water at this time of year
(photo by John)

As we were heading back, and I was crossing from one track into another, I skidded in a patch of soft sand. I could feel my front wheel slipping sideways out from under me, and I went sprawling! Full faceplant! When I managed to pick myself up, I was covered in grey dust, and had gravel embedded in my left knee and elbow, and in the heels of both my hands. I should have worn gloves!

I brushed myself down, after a fashion, and we continued on towards the bridge that we had crossed earlier, and took more photos. This river had more water in it, and also sported some interesting cliffs. On checking the map, we found this was the Wharepapa River.

Impressive cliffs and more water (photo by John)

On the bridge (photo by John)

The mouth of the Wharepapa Rver and view towards Palliser Bay

We came to a junction where the road changed its name. On the photo the sign pointing straight at me, said "To Wharekauhau". This is a very exclusive and expensive luxury retreat, where the likes of Prince William and other rich and famous people get to stay.

The sign to Wharekauhau is pointing straight at us

I thought I should have rocked up there and asked to use one of their bathrooms to clean myself up after my tumble. But that would have seriously lowered the tone of the place, wouldn’t it? So instead, we went back to the car, and I cleaned up my grazes as best I could with tissues and water from my drink bottle.

Clean-up time (photo by John)

Back on the road – in the car – back to Cross Creek. Despite my fall, we decided to check out the track at Cross Creek, since we were here. Somehow, the road back didn’t seem to take as long as it had on the way out. We stopped a few times for more photos.

Looking back towards Wharekauhau

The view down to Lake Onoke, and the bar that separates it from Palliser Bay
(click to enlarge) (photo by John)

We also stopped for a small herd of cattle – young steers, I think – being walked from one paddock to another.

Rural traffic jam (photo by John)

At the Cross Creek carpark, we talked to some people who had just come back from walking (the women) and cycling (the men) the Rimutaka Trail. They’d only gone a short distance, but they said it was very pretty, though quite narrow in places.

Well, we duly set off, and the very start was OK, but then the track became just a very narrow rut with grassy edges. I didn’t feel too comfortable about the drop to the right of us as we progressed, and I worried about John.

The track was narrow and became even narrower (photo by John)

I went ahead of John, and when I came to a spot where the track became very stony and looked like it had been, or was being, repaired, I waited for him to catch up. I wasn’t keen to continue. Having had one fall, I had no wish to take another spill, nor did I want to push my bike over rough ground.

John took a while to catch up – and he was walking! “Let’s call a stop to this”, he said. The narrowness of the track, and the drop to the right in some places were “messing with his balance”. Wearing his eyepatch, he has no peripheral vision to his right, so a drop on the right hand side of a narrow track is particularly scary.

The narrowness of the track was messing with John’s balance

So we returned to the car. He was disappointed, but I was relieved. It looks like we will not now be tackling the entire Rimutaka Rail Trail from either end. What a good thing that we had decided on a “recce” today, instead of trying to do the whole trail. Phew!

In the end, we decided not to ride the Woodside Trail out of Greytown, as originally planned, as we were both feeling a bit the worse for wear. So after a belated lunch in Greytown we headed on home.

So there we have it. We are able to cross two items off our “must-check-out” list: the Rimutaka Rail Trail on the Wairarapa side, and the Rimutaka Cycle Trail along the Wairarapa and Wainuiomata coast. Yay! I hope John has now got them out of his system too.

Rimutaka Rail Trail

Wonder of wonders! We have had three fine days in a row! Quite something for this annoyingly disappointing summer we are having in Wellington. Saturday 11 February was fine, with a clear blue sky, and – a real novelty this summer – it was calm! So we decided to bike the Rimutaka Rail Trail. 

We haven’t biked up there for a long time. Not since October 2014, to be precise. That was just before we bought our electric bikes. I think what put us off going with the e-bikes was the gate to the track. It was narrow and awkward. We didn’t think we’d be able to get the bikes through the gate, and they are too heavy to lift over the car gate. But we had heard that there is now a modern, “standard Nga Haerenga design” gate. 

When we drove up to the start of the trail, we passed the turn-off to Stonestead at Te Marua, where we had Devonshire Teas on one of our Folding Goldies rides. 

That had been in the pouring rain, today it was possible to sit at one of the outside picnic tables, under a sun umbrella. So it seemed like an imperative stop before starting our ride.

Stonestead (photo by John)

Devonshire tea under the sun umbrellas (photo by John)

After Kevin’s delicious scones, we headed to the start of the Rimutaka Trail. We were pleased to see that the access road had been sealed, and was in good condition. The last time we were here, this road was in a dreadful state.

Being a beautiful day and a weekend, the carpark was pretty full, but we managed to score a spot in the shade of a hedge. In this photo, a fluke of the light and camera lens makes it look as if my bike has been “beamed down” to us from somewhere “up there”.

Was my bike beamed down from somewhere up there? (photo by John)

The new gate for bikes is a great improvement

The scenery on the trail is wonderfully varied. By turns, the track is edged with tall pine trees, regenerating native bush, wide open spaces, or dark fern-covered cuttings. There are historic bridges, rushing streams, tunnels and information boards. And when you get to the Summit, there is a large open area with picnic tables and the remains of the fell engines that once used to ply this track when it was a railway.

The pine trees exude their lovely fragrance (photo by John)

There is a second gate before the track enters a shooting range area

At this bridge there is an option to either ford the stream, or to keep your feet dry
and use the bridge (photo by John)

The historic Pakuratahi Bridge dates from 1876, though it was rebuilt in 1910 after a fire,
and restored in 2001 (photo by John)

The Summit. The shelter in the distance houses photos and information about the original
Rimutaka Railway (photo by John)

Though there were several small groups of people at the Summit, it was unbelievably quiet and peaceful up there. We relished the magic of a calm, sunny day.

John rides through one of the dark, fern-clad cuttings

Coming out of a dark and damp cutting into the bright sunshine (photo by John)

Ladle Bend Creek Bridge was built on a curve. It dates from 1875, and was restored in 2002

Another view of the Pakuratahi Bridge (photo by John)

This trail is not a long ride, being 10.5 km of very gentle uphill to the Summit. So we only did 21 km on this ride.

One day, we may even do the whole rail trail – starting from the Wairarapa side of the hill. It’s the thought of the notorious Siberia Gully that has put me off wanting to try it. Siberia has the reputation of being cold and extremely rough, where you may have to manhandle your bike over the rough bits. But having “survived” having to manoeuvre the bikes over boulders at the Waikanae River, I’ve been thinking that perhaps Siberia can’t be too much worse? Or am I being too optimistic? The rub of course is that we would have to push our bikes not only over rough ground, but uphill.

We will have to think on it. Who knows …

Rimutaka Rail Trail

Thursday 9 October was a gloriously sunny day, just perfect for cycling. We tossed up whether we should ride the Rimutaka Rail Trail or ride to Pencarrow. We decided on Rimutaka, as we thought we’d better do some hills.

From previous experience, we knew that the summit plateau is a beautiful place for a picnic, so we stopped at Brown Owl to get some Subway mini subs for our lunch, before heading to the start of the trail.

We last rode this trail in June, when the sun was low and much of the track was in the shade. Now, it was beautifully sunny and along the edge of the track the rangiora shrubs were flowering. The flowers grow in clusters and are very small. Most were still in bud.

The tiny flowers of rangiora (Brachyglottis repanda) have yet to open

The leaves of the rangiora (Brachyglottis repanda) are glossy on the top, but soft and fuzzy on the back, which has earned them the name of “bushman’s friend”, as they were used as toilet paper by early settlers. Māori have also used the leaves as poultices for wounds. A very useful plant!

Some sections of the track go under the canopy of pine trees. In some places it was strewn with debris and pine cones, as we’d had galeforce winds a few days earlier, but there was a beautiful scent from the trees.

A tiny waterfall provides perfect growing conditions for many mosses (photo by John)

The Pakuratahi River, from Ladle Bend Bridge (photo by John)

The track climbs high above the river, under the pine trees. I found it a lot easier with my modified gearing, and I was able to stay in the middle gear all the way.

Much easier in the middle gear now (photo by John)

There’s a lovely view to the river through the trees (photo by John)

The ride to the summit – 10 km – takes just an hour. We did not go down the other side. We’ve tried it once before and didn’t like it because of the long, very dark tunnel, and the steepness and roughness of the track.

So we sat in the sun and ate our somewhat squashed mini subs – thanks to my jacket having been stuffed on top of them in my pannier.

As we were about to leave, a woman and her three teenagers arrived and stopped for a chat. They were going down to the Wairarapa side, where her partner would be meeting them. She offered to take a photo of us both.

At the Rimutaka Summit (photo by another cyclist, with John’s camera)

The rusting remains of train engines at the Summit

The return ride back to the car took less than an hour. We had done 20 km.

Rimutaka Rail Trail (3)

With another fine, windless day promised by the weather forecast, we planned to set off early-ish to ride the Rimutaka Rail Trail yesterday. We wanted to be there when the sun was at its highest, in the middle of the day.

When we set off from home, the bright blue sky that the weatherman had promised had yet to materialise; there was high cloud over the Hutt Valley. But by the time we got to the start of the track, it had cleared up. All the same, as we found when we started biking, it was quite cold in the shade. I was glad I was wearing an extra layer, and John went back to the car to get his.

It was cold in the shady cuttings (photo by John)

We had only done this track in summer, on warm sunny days. Now, with only a week to go to the shortest day, the low angle of the sun meant that its rays did not get over the highest hills. So quite a large part of the track was in the shade. The two substantial bridges – the Pakuratahi Bridge (truss bridge), and the Ladle Bend Bridge – were both in the shade. Of course, the sun shone brightly where there were gaps in the hills.

The track climbs through a nice wooded area (photo by John)

We pedalled along quite steadily. Again, I was surprised at how much easier the ride up had been, compared to last time. I had used my lowest gears for the steeper bits, but John said that he had done it all in top gear. “Oh, stink”, I said, but it was a challenge for me to try using a higher gear, and it was OK. I felt quite pleased with myself.

It is 10 km to the Summit, and it really didn’t take us very long. The last couple of times we went up there, we rued the fact that we had not brought a picnic, so this time we did. As John was about to take a photo of me tucking into lunch, a young woman cycling past stopped and offered to take a picture of us both.

Picnic lunch at the Summit (photo by Elisabeth with John’s camera)

She was riding the full rail trail, going over the hill and down towards Cross Creek and Featherston, where she had arranged to be picked up. While we were talking she excused herself as she had to switch off her tracker while she was stationary. She was able to track her ride and her time by GPS on her smart phone. A much more scientific way to do things than our “where shall we go today” method. She was interested to hear about our rides, and we exchanged websites/blogsites. As she went on her way she said “I love offering to take people’s photo, you can meet such interesting people”.

I have since looked up her website, and read some of her blog posts with great interest. She is a very busy person by the look of it.

We enjoyed our lunch in the sun, and then John took a few photos of the rusting remains of the train engines that used to ride on the Rimutaka Railway. There is something very aesthetically pleasing about large rusty machinery.

The rusting remains of the Rimutaka train engines (photo by John)

I wonder what all these pipes were for? (photo by John)

While I was waiting for John to take his photos, I marveled at the peace of the place. “Listen”, I said, when he’d finished. “What? I don’t hear anything”. “That’s right, there isn’t anything. Listen to the silence”. The only sounds were the occasional bird calls, and the distant rushing of the river in the valley below.

On the way up I had been looking at the huge variety of ferns that grow along the side of the track, especially in those dark and damp cuttings, and I told John I wanted to linger and take some photos of them on the way back.

I’m no botanist, and not even much of a gardener, but I do like looking at plants: admiring the shapes and patterns of leaves, trying to recognise them and name them – in a very limited way, I hasten to add. Ferns are practically synonymous with New Zealand, and rightly so. I looked up NZ ferns on Wikipedia, and there are no less than 16 ‘familes’ of ferns, each of which have many ‘genera’ (plural of ‘genus’ – as I dig up my Latin declensions from the depths of my subconscious), which in turn had many ‘species’.

I took 12 photos of ferns and mosses, and John took a further six, all different, in just one short stretch of a cutting. I won’t subject you to all of them, but here are a few of my favourites.

There were dozens of different kinds of ferns in just this bit of a cutting

Three types of ferns with very differently shaped fronds

Love the texture of the pustules that hide the spores

Completely different again

So delicate – I think this one is the ‘kiwikiwi’ or Blechnum fluviatile

I had especially noticed the fern in this last shot, and thought “I must take a picture of it when we go back”. Then of course, I had trouble finding it again, as it is not as common as the other varieties. Mental note to self: take the photo when you first notice it, don’t count on seeing it on the way back. Things always look different on on the return trip - different angle, different light ... There's something to be said for “there and back” rides.

Mosses and liverworts were plentiful too

Near the Ladle Bend Bridge is a sign pointing the way to a picnic and camping area by the river. On Elisabeth’s recommendation (“it is gorgeous”, she said) we took a look. We rode down a steep grassy track which, when it flattened out, became quite wet and boggy. There was a large flat area which would be quite nice for camping in the summer – if camping is your thing (which it isn't for us). Several fireplaces made with river stones dotted the place, and there was a picnic table on a concrete pad.

The camping area near Ladle Bend (photo by John)

The track carried on a little way down to the river, but there seemed to be no track alongside it. Perhaps in the summer, when the river has less water in it, it would be a great place to mess around in the shallow stream.

The Pakuratahi River at Ladle Bend (photo by John)

After that little interlude, it was a lovely downhill run back to the car.

On the way home, we stopped at the Expressions Gallery in Upper Hutt. There was an interesting exhibition, called “Deep in the Woods”, of whimsical paintings, marionettes and other ‘creations’ by a trio of Wellington artists.

These delightful marionettes by Jon Coddington are called “Hopepa, Tony Chang & Chopper Reedz”

A bicycle with a difference – “The Box of Curious Delights” by Stephen Templer had a peep-show
 inside the box

This painting by Rieko Woodford-Robinson is called "Mana Whenua (Bird of the Land - Kakapo)”.
I really like it, it is whimsical, and yet has a serious meaning