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.