Petone to Eastbourne

On Tuesday 29 September, we decided on an easy ride from Petone to Eastbourne. Although the ride was all on the flat, we took the electric bikes, as there was a brisk breeze.

We parked at the motorway end of Petone and biked to Days Bay without stopping. There is a bit of a cycle lane on the seaward side of the road in most places, but at times we had to cross and ride on the road. We stopped for coffee and a scone at the Chocolate Dayz Café.

Fortified by coffee at Chocolate Dayz (photo by John)

It was a pleasant ride round the bays to Eastbourne. It seemed to us – but we may be mistaken – that the shape of the beach had changed since were last there. It seemed more ‘scalloped’ somehow.

We thought the beach had changed shape (photo by John) 

The same stretch of beach, seen from the other end (photo by John)

We biked to the end of the road, stopping at Burdan’s Gate, the starting point to the Pencarrow Lighthouse track. We did not want to bike there today – in any case, the silly gate which gives pedestrians and cyclists access to the track is too awkward to manoeuvre the e-bikes through. And these bikes are too heavy to lift over the main gate across the road.

Coming back through Eastbourne, we took a little detour onto the wharf.

The Eastbourne wharf (photo by John)

As we were riding along the riverside track at Seaview, we saw, up ahead, the little yellow tug Kowhai pushing along the dredging barge with a digger on the top. John raced along to catch up with it so he could take a photo.

The tug Kowhai, and the dredging barge (photo by John)

On the Waione Bridge across the Hutt River, there are always people fishing, causing a bit of an obstruction on the narrow foot/cycle path. Sometimes they have a bike or paraphernalia near them on the footpath, so you have to dismount to get past. This time, when we rode past one of the anglers, something wet and slimy hit me on the side of the face. I don’t know what it was, it didn’t hurt but it was pretty icky! At least it didn’t smell!

The rest of the way back to the car was uneventful. We had done 33 km – a reasonably respectable ride.

Cherry Blossoms in Whitby

Wow, it seems like such a long time since I last wrote up a blog post. We have been cycling, but I’ve had no time to write things up.

On Thursday 24 Sep, we went on a Folding Goldies ride. As pre-planned dates tend to go, you have no control over what the weather will be like on the day, and this time, again, it was not a particularly brilliant day – quite cold and wet.

The date was determined by the flowering of the cherry trees in the Japanese garden in Whitby. The walking/cycling path runs through it, and on previous rides we had speculated on how lovely they would look at the right time of year. The plan was to take the train to Porirua, bike through Bothamley Park to Whitby. Then on to Pauatahanui for lunch, and back to Mana for the train back. There were six of us – a few more than usual – and for the first time, another woman came along.

As expected, the track through Bothamley Park was quite wet. The wide path through the forest was was OK when on the gravel, but some part were quite muddy.

The lower end of Bothamley Park (photo by John)

Fortunately the muddy track had a solid base (photo by John)

We emerged from the forest track, and crossed the road (don’t know which road it was!). Here several of the group stopped to take off their parkas, as it was warming up a bit and the rain had stopped. I am glad that I didn’t take mine off, because on the next track, I went for a spill in the mud.

Time for some of us to shed a layer (photo by John)

We avoided riding on a very soggy bit of track, and diverted along the edge of a sports ground, where the “track” was basically a concrete draining channel. I tried to avoid a broken bit of concrete, and strayed onto the soft edge of the grass, promptly losing traction and going for a skid. Result: I came a cropper, landing on my left side in the mud. Because it was soft and wet, I did not hurt myself, but I did get filthy dirty. Lucky I was wearing my parka over my nice new blue Tineli jacket (which is not so easy to wash!). The parka was easy to sponge clean when I got home.

The walking/cycling paths in Whitby are very nice indeed. We duly reached the Japanese Garden with all its lovely Sakura cherry trees in bloom. This garden celebrates Porirua’s sister city of Nishio, in Japan.

Despite the gloomy sky, the frothy look of the cherry blossoms was a treat, especially as there were still some daffodils out under the trees. Apparently it is tricky to find a time when both the blossoms and the daffodils (which tend to flower a bit earlier) are both at their best. I reckon we were lucky to see both.

Stopping to take photos (photo by John)

Cherry blossoms and daffodils

As we were lingering near the cherry trees, taking photos, a local walking group came along with the same purpose. They told us that usually their group was much larger, but the rainy weather had put some of them off.

Cyclists meet walkers (photo by John)

We stopped for a leisurely lunch at the Ground Up Café in Pauatahanui, and then rode back to Mana via the Camborne Walkway. The weather had sort of cleared by then, and John would have been quite happy to ride all the way back to Porirua or Takapu Road (where we had parked the car), but I felt that 20 km was enough, especially since we were dancing in the evening as well. The others decided that they would take the train back from Mana, so we did too.

For the next Folding Goldies ride, it has been decided that we will ride the Whiteman’s Valley Road.

Two short rides – Hutt River Trail and Wellington Waterfont

It’s over three weeks since the last bike ride I wrote up. Hmm, this sounds almost like a confession. In that time, we’ve done two rides – 16 and 10 km – on the Giants (i.e. the non-electric bikes), and three rather more substantial rides on the e-bikes.

On Sunday 13 September, we went into Petone to have a look at the Home Ideas Centre (as we are looking to get some work done on our house), and just on the off-chance, we put the bikes in the car too.

After our visit in Petone, we drove to Lower Hutt’s riverside car park, and biked up the valley. It was sunny and calm, but a southerly was expected later in the day.

I was giving my new cycling jacket its first outing. I had a great deal of trouble finding one that fitted, but finally the lovely Jenny at Scott’s Outlet in Petone came up trumps for me. The thermal softshell fabric is beautifully warm and really keeps the wind out, but I miss the convenient pockets of my other blue jacket. Never mind – one can’t have everything perfect …

First outing of my new Tineli cycling jacket (photo by John) 

We rode up the eastern bank of the Hutt River, had lunch at our “usual” café, Janus Bakkerij, and continued until some distance beyond the Kennedy Good Bridge. We were happily pedaling along, when John suggested it would be wise to turn around now, as the southerly was about to hit. How did he know? “The going is too easy, we must be getting a tailwind”, he said.

He was right. We turned around and went back to the bridge, where we crossed to the western bank. We now had a southerly headwind, which grew steadily stronger. With our non-e bikes, pedaling into it was quite a bit harder than we've become used to lately on the e-bikes. A good reminder, actually. It is too easy to become complacent.

This part of the river bank has been repaired after suffering severe scouring in the May floods
 (photo by John)

Heading south on the western bank of the river (photo by John)

We crossed back to the other side over the railway bridge – there is a “tacked on” foot/cycle path – to get back to the car. We had done 16 km.

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The next day, it was still fine (a bonus, as spring has taken such a long time to establish itself), so we went for an easy ride along the Wellington waterfront. We rode 10 km from the far end of Oriental Parade to the Stadium and back. It’s a ride we do often, so there’s nothing much new to say about the ride, but John took some interesting photos, which I’ll share here.

Logs on the wharf, seen through the etched glass of the canopy over the footpath near the Stadium
(photo by John)

Ferg's colourful kayaks on Queen’s Wharf (photo by John)

Textures on the centre wall of the bridge over the Frank Kitts Lagoon (photo by John)

A forest of posts on Taranaki Street Wharf, with the floating crane Hikitea in the background
 (photo by John)

Reflections by the Clyde Quay Wharf Apartments (photo by John)

Waikanae

On Tuesday last week, conditions were finally right for a long bike ride. The weather was good and we had overcome our lurgies (John) and concussion (me). We went to the Kapiti Coast, as it looked like the weather might be just a bit better there. And so it was – spring’s here!

At the Otaihanga Domain, where we parked, we watched as a family of ducks waddled towards a large puddle to take the babies for a swim. Mum, Dad, eleven ducklings, and a few aunties too.

No fewer than eleven ducklings! (photo by John)

Ah, a lovely puddle for a safe swim … (photo by John)

While biking through the Waimanu Lagoon Reserve, we spotted another young family – a pair of black swans and six fluffy, grey cygnets. They must be well used to human admirers, as they swam towards us solicitously when we stopped to take photos. When they found we didn’t have any offerings, they paddled off again.

They came to investigate us … (photo by John)

… and then paddled off again (photo by John)

We headed down through Waikanae Beach, and onto Rutherford Drive towards Peka Peka. There is a little path that detours off the road, and meanders through the sand dunes. Several of the hill sides around a lagoon area have recently been planted.

New planting in the sand dunes (photo by John)

Reflections on a lagoon (photo by John)

We pushed on towards Peka Peka for lunch at Harrison’s, followed by a wander around the adjoining garden centre.

After returning to Waikanae, we followed the river track as far as the Te Arawai foot bridge, where we crossed and headed back along the opposite bank. Evidence of spring finally arriving was all around – fresh tender green on the willows, daffodils in the paddocks, a lamb or two, and the smells of flowering wattles, onion weed and freshly mown grass. When we got back to our car at the Otaihanga Domain, we had biked 31 km.

Since it was such a glorious day, we took the long way home by driving up the Paekakariki Hill Road. The fabulous view from the lookout makes for a compulsory stop. There was very little wind – just enough for an updraft, which was made good use of by a paraglider, swooping down to the beach and then back up overhead and down again.

The view from the Paekakariki Hill lookout towards Paraparaumu and Kapiti Island
(photo by John)

The glare off a calm Tasman Sea (photo by John)

The paraglider swooped over the top of us and away again

Stars and Lights

I’ve “been in the wars”, but have “soldiered on”. On Friday night a week ago, I had the great stupidity of walking – at speed, because I was in a hurry – into a plate glass window. It looked like an open door but it wasn’t! I was lucky it didn’t break. I now know how it feels to see stars!

Seeing stars!

It wasn’t the first time I had my forehead assaulted by an immovable object. When I was six years old, I ran into a lamppost while waving at my friend on the other side of the road. It got me a life-long bumpy forehead, and two beaut, fortunately temporary, shiners. As I was on my way home from a catechism lesson, before my catholic first communion, this did not bode well for any future involvement in religion … (speaking as a, now, atheist).

Little first communion girl, with my bruise and shiners

Anyway, after my Friday-night escapade, despite feeling a bit foggy in the head, I went to the Johnsonville Scottish Country Dance Club’s 60th anniversary dance the next evening. As a loyal Johnsonville member, I couldn’t not go, but I didn’t manage to last the full evening. The next day, still feeling foggy, I sought medical advice, and was told that I was concussed, and that I should take it easy for a few days.

Dancing “four hands across” (photo by John)

The three most long-standing members cut the birthday cake (photo by Loralee Hyde)

Lots of willing hands help in getting supper ready (photo by John)

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The following week, we went down to the Wellington Waterfront to view the offerings of the Lux Lights Festival. Of course John had a lovely time with his camera.

These lights were suspended above the water in front of the Foxglove Restaurant
(photo by John)

A video was projected onto a fine mist, sprayed up from the water near
Queen’s Wharf (photo by John)

Hundreds of lunchboxes hanging from a tree in Frank Kitts Park (photo by John)

After the festival the 1500 lunchboxes were to be packed with food
and gifted to hungry Wellington children (photo by John)

The Michael Fowler Centre was lit up in pretty colours too (photo by John)

The floating crane “Hikitea” (photo by John)

This was called “See Creature” (sic) in Opera House Lane (photo by John) 

The colours in this window display changed depending on where you viewed it from
(photo by John)

Not part of the festival, but a new permanent sculpture
in Cuba Street,  “The Philanthropist’s Stone” (photo by John) 

These giant lightbulbs on top of a pop-up bar in a truck changed colours every few seconds
(photo by John)

The Star Boating Club and paddle-boats on the Frank Kitts Lagoon (photo by John)

The lights of a city building reflected in a puddle

Trentham to Petone and other rides

One of the disadvantages of going on a biking holiday is that when you come home, you feel a bit “biked out”, and don’t want to go for any rides for a while. While our last escapade wasn’t exactly a biking holiday – just a few days’ cycling tacked onto the end of a week visiting family – we did bike a total of 205 km, which was enough to set up the “biked out” feeling. Added to that was the fact that John has been laid low by a nasty cold and generally feeling tired and unmotivated. And the weather has not been too enticing, so we haven’t done any great bike heroics for over a month.

But on Wednesday 5 August – yes I know, that’s nearly a month ago, I’ve been a bit remiss in writing things up – it was fine-ish, so we took the train to Upper Hutt. We had thought of biking in Whiteman’s Valley, and riding back to Petone. However, that day, the train only went as far as Trentham, and was being replaced by buses to take passengers to Upper Hutt from there. Not very practical with our bikes.

So we flagged the idea of Whiteman’s Valley. It will keep for another time. We found our way to Trentham Park, to get to the Hutt River trail. The park leads into a nice forested area, called Barton’s Bush. This is the largest remaining area of original native bush – lowland mixed podocarp/broadleaf forest – on the valley floor. 

The entrance to Trentham Park from Fergusson Drive (photo by John)

The track through Barton’s Bush (photo by John)

Once on the Hutt River Trail, we were on familiar territory. It was pleasing to see the progress that is being made in sealing most of the trail. Between Silverstream and Stokes Valley, there is a stretch of track, parallel to and below the Eastern Hutt Road, that is narrow, gravelly and up-and-down. It is my least favourite bit of the trail, and I was thrilled to see that it had been replaced with a nice, smooth concrete path. However, my enjoyment was very short-lived, as it only went for a very short distance, only to deteriorate into gravel and mud again. Oh, well – there’s hope that it will be sealed eventually …

Disappointingly this sealed stretch of track did not go very far (photo by John)

Closer to Lower Hutt, more of the track had been sealed, a very nice smooth finish, though it looks a bit messy on the photo below. I think it will look much better when all the mud streaks have washed off in the rain.

The sealed track near lower Hutt (photo by John)

With a small detour into Lower Hutt for lunch, we got back to our car in Petone, having biked 30 km. A good ride.

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We had a few short rides in subsequent weeks – a couple of times down to our local café with a meander around the suburb (9-10 km each), and a 10 km ride along the Wellington Waterfront on a lovely sunny day.

Not a trick photo – that's how steep Churton Park streets are (photo by John)

Our local café – "Thyme" – on Middleton Road (photo by John)

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Our next ride of any substance was along the northern edge of the Pauatahanui Inlet on 21 August. We parked in the Ngati Toa Domain, and rode to the Camborne Walkway. When we first got there, the inlet was absolutely flat, mirror-like, with magnificent reflections. But by the time we came to the end of the walkway, a breeze had sprung up and all the reflections were gone. We were lucky to have captured them.

The Camborne boatsheds and the beach at the end of Pascoe Avenue (photo by John)

Reflections on the inlet (photo by John)

The clouds just make this picture (photo by John)

John concentrates on taking the above pictures

After lunch at the Ground Up Café in Pauatahanui (they do a fantastic chicken salad!), we rode some distance past the roundabout on the Haywards Road, to turn into Bradey Road. We had biked here once before about a year ago. We didn’t have the e-bikes then, and the climb up the hill meant I had to walk quite a bit of it. This time, we sailed up the hill without trouble. This is a lovely valley, and I spotted wattles in flower, and daffodils along the roadside. Spring is a-coming!

From the top of the rise, the road becomes a gravel farm track, and unfortunately it ends at a gate with dire warnings to “keep out”. So we stopped, took some photos, and turned around.

The end of the road (photo by John)

St Joseph’s is a small historic church (built in 1878), opposite the exit from Bradey Road (photo by John)

Our total distance for the day was 21 km.