Pencarrow

Sunday 18 March was a perfect day – fine and calm – to bike to Pencarrow. We parked near the Eastbourne Wharf and biked the three kilometres to Burdan’s Gate, which is the start of the road to Pencarrow.

Since it was such a beautiful day, the Burdan’s Gate Bike Shed was doing brisk business, with many people hiring bikes. This even caused a bit of a queue at the gate itself.

There is a gate across the road entrance, but it is kept locked for ordinary mortals. You need special permission to be able to drive on the Pencarrow Road. So walkers and cyclists have to gain access through a narrow gate at the side.

It really is a silly gate – very narrow, with a springloaded mechanism that keeps wanting to shut on you. It is so narrow, that you have to raise your bike on its rear wheel to get the handle bars over, rather than through, the gate. People with lightweight bikes did the smart thing by lifting their bikes over the main gate, but with the electric bikes (at 25 kg) this is not practical.

It was a lovely ride. All along I kept thinking that we Wellingtonians are so lucky to have such a lot of different environments for biking, right on our doorstep, as it were. It is such a beautiful part of the coast — in fine weather, of course!

As the road winds in and out of the many bays, we enjoyed the views of the different beaches. Some strewn with driftwood, some with just lots of seaweed, and some with beautiful but dangerous rocks.

Beaches strewn with driftwood (photo by John)

Nature’s sculpture

Rocks and seaweed (photo by John)

The two Pencarrow lighthouses and the incoming ferry (photo by John)

We rode beyond the lower lighthouse, and found that there was a new information panel that we hadn’t seen before. It provides details about some of the birds in the area – the dotterel and the oyster catcher – and warns visitors not to disturb these birds’ habitats on the sandy beaches along this part of the coast.

A new information panel (photo by John)

We went as far as the entry to the Porangahau Lakes. The gate was locked, and there was no way to go up there unless you lifted the bikes over the gate. And the road ahead was very sandy, which makes it very skiddy, so we didn’t carry on any further.

We’re not sure what the black framework is or was for, but it makes for a dramatic photo
(photo by John)

When we were on our way back and looked around, back at the lighthouse, we noticed that there was a big tourist bus pulling up at the lighthouse. We think it must have been a tour for people off the enormous cruise ship in port that day, The Ovation of the Seas.

I felt slightly offended at the idea of a tour bus bringing hordes of tourists here

The Ovation of the Seas at the cruise ship terminal in Wellington, on the other side of the harbour
(photo by John)

Such a beautiful coast! (photo by John)

I thought that if we timed it right, we could waltz through the gate behind the bus instead of having to use the stupid bike gate. Then I thought, we should get to the Chocolate Dayz café before the bus disgorged all its passengers for lunch. But they took a long while at the lighthouse – perhaps they had a picnic lunch or something as part of the tour – and when the bus eventually sailed past us as we rode into Days Bay, it didn't even stop there. So we were able to score a table at the café.

After lunch we biked back to Eastbourne, where we had parked, and stopped at the dairy for an ice cream. While we were eating it in the sun, Gordon, a member of the Folding Goldies, stopped by us, and said he had just biked Pencarrow, right up to the end where the big rocks are, using my blog from November 2013 as a guide. It made me feel quite chuffed!

We got home at 2pm, having done 24 km, and I reached well over my 6,500 km on my bike. Yay!

Petone to Eastbourne

We hadn’t biked to Days Bay and Eastbourne for quite a while, so on Tuesday 21 March, we decided to ride from Petone to Days Bay for lunch. We parked in Petone, in the carpark at the western end of the Esplanade. A few weeks earlier, the short gravel track between the parking reserve and the Petone Wharf had been sealed, and made wider, which makes it much nicer to ride on.

The beach-side track has been widened and sealed (photo by John)

I had hoped that the narrow, gravel track in the Hikoikoi Reserve, that runs along the Hutt River estuary, might also have been improved, but it hadn’t.

Crossing the bridge over the Hutt River is always a little hazardous. It is narrow, and often there are people fishing, who leave their paraphernalia on the path, and sometimes they leave their fishing rods propped up half-way across the path. I always worry that one day a fishhook will either give us a puncture, or worse, may be flicked back and hit one of us in the face.

The path across the bridge is narrow, and often clogged with people fishing (photo by John)

We continued on the track alongside Seaview Road, and past the marina, where we didn’t take any pictures this time – just for a change. Onto a stretch of cycle path between the boat launching ramp and the Point Howard Wharf.

A cycle path heading towards Point Howard (photo by John)

For the first few kilometres around the eastern bays, there is a sort-of protected shoulder on the seaward side of the road, but from Lowry Bay, this disappears and we had to cycle on the road.

There is a protected shoulder of sorts for some of the way … (photo by John)

… but from Lowry Bay we had to ride on the road (photo by John)

At Days Bay, we stopped for lunch at the Chocolate Dayz Café. Directly behind the café is the Southlight Studio, where photographer Simon Hoyle specialises in family portraits. We had some wonderful family photos taken by Simon about 17 years ago. He took us to the Eastbourne Wharf, where he took some lovely relaxed photos of us all. They are much treasured.

John liked the contrast of the orange chairs with the blue of the view beyond (photo by John)

The Chocolate Dayz Café, with the Southlight Studio at the back (photo by John)

After lunch we continued the ride towards Eastbourne, as far as Burdan’s Gate, which is the start of the track to Pencarrow. We didn’t carry on to do the Pencarrow ride, as I was still a bit reluctant to tackle loose gravel (after my fall on Ocean Beach Road several weeks earlier). But we sat in the sun and took pictures.

The Eastbourne Domain (photo by John)

We noted that they had changed the gate for pedestrians and cyclists since the last time we were there. It was a very awkward narrow zig-zaggy gate. Now the gate is somewhat easier, but I think it would still be a bit of a mission to get the e-bikes through. We watched a couple of cyclists coming back from a ride, and they had to raise their bikes onto the back wheel to be able to walk them through the narrow gap.

The gate (with the chain attached) is still very narrow and tricky to negotiate with a bike (photo by John)

Looking north ... (photo by John)

... and south, towards Cook Strait (photo by John)

By the time we got back to Petone, we had done a very relaxed 28 km.

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.

A busy weekend

We haven’t been out for a bike ride this week, we’ve been too busy with other things. Apart from going to Scottish Country Dancing on Sunday afternoon (last week) and on three evenings during the week, this last weekend was also very busy.

On Friday night we attended a “Wellington on a Plate” event, at the Boomrock Lodge. This is a convention and wedding venue, right at the end of the Ohariu Valley Road, and up the hill for several kilometres to the edge of the world, it seems.

As part of the event, participants were picked up from the city – or in our case, from Johnsonville – and taken in two full-size buses to the Boomrock Lodge. On the way through the Ohariu Valley, we could see, though dusk was setting in, that this would be quite a nice place to bike. We must investigate that some time soon. It is practically on our back doorstep, but we haven’t been there for a long while.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset as we were being driven up to the lodge, but unfortunately by the time we got there it was nearly dark.

The idea for this event was that it would simulate an après-ski ambiance, and participants were encouraged to don their best “après-ski” outfits. It was a very cold evening, with a bitter southerly, and when we emerged from the bus, it seemed to be snowing! But no, it wasn’t actually snow, just a machine on the roof blowing very fine clusters of bubbles which looked quite realistically like big snow flakes. It all added to the illusion.

“Snow” on the ground at the Boomrock Lodge entrance (photo by John)

There was a roaring open fire in the dining room, and we were immediately offered glasses of bubbly as we entered. Then everyone trooped out onto the lawn in front of the Lodge, to catch the last of the fabulous view before dark. Beyond the lawn, the hill dropped away sharply and the stunning view over Cook Strait stretched from the South Island to Mana Island.

John and I warm our hands on cups of Glühwein in front of the Lodge.
The South Island is in the background

It was jolly cold out there, so we went back inside and found our table. A group of people in natty ski jumpers was hovering in front of the open fire.

The warm pre-dinner atmosphere (photo by John)

The table settings were beautifully done (photo taken from the Boomrock Facebook page)

The dinner was excellent. It started with an entrée of French bread slices with melting Camembert and fig chutney. When the young man in a David Bain ski jersey came to clear the empty plates away, I said to him that the fig chutney was delicious. “Would you like some to take home?”, he asked. Yes, of course I would. And within seconds a waitress came over and gave me a beautiful little jar of it. Then, to my surprise, the young man came back with another jar! How wonderful – that meant that my sister, who was there too, was able to take a jar home as well!

A jar of Boomrock Fig Chutney

The main course was Thar mountain goat with a braised leek concoction and potato Mornay (I think). I hadn’t been too sure about the mountain goat (as I hate the taste of goat’s milk or cheese), but it was actually delicious – rather like venison, in fact. The meal finished with apple strudel and ice-cream, and finally hot chocolate with marshmallows. Yum!

The Thar mountain goat steak was delicious (photo by John)

At about 9 pm, we were advised that the buses were ready to take us back into town. It was a good thing that guests didn’t have to drive back, along that very winding, steep gravel road in the pitch dark, as many people had imbibed a fair bit of alcohol. It had been a fun evening, and excellent meal.

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On Saturday night, John and I went to our (Johnsonville) Scottish Country Dance Club’s Annual Dance, where we had a wonderful time. It was very well attended, with over 70 people there. I think I rather overdid the dancing – I danced every one of the 20 dances, with the result that I was feeling somewhat sore the next day – pretty much "crippled", actually! But I do love the dancing, despite the pain afterwards.

The band, and the Johnsonville Club teacher, Rod Downey (photo by John)

The dance was very well attended (photo by Pat Reesby)

Great to see all the men in kilts! (photo by Loralee Hyde)

Supper waiting to be served. Every Johnsonville member brought two plates each!
 (photo by John)

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On Sunday night, we attended a performance of “Der Rosenkavalier”, an opera by Richard Strauss. It was performed by the Days Bay Opera which usually perform small opera events in a garden in summer. This time, the opera was performed in the newly built hall at Wellesley College in Days Bay. Before the performance, it was possible to enjoy a special dinner at the Days Bay Pavillion – supposedly an Austrian-style opera supper.

One of the choices for the main course was Bratwurst (Austrian sausage) in a crisp breadroll with sauerkraut and mustard, and a side salad. All four of us (we were with my sister and her husband) chose that. It was very tasty, but we were a bit mystified by the wasabi dressing on the side salad – that did not seem very Austrian! The dessert of Sachertorte however was suitably Austrian, and very yummy.

There is a path that leads directly from the Pavillion into the grounds of Wellesley College. It is a very attractive old (I think) building, and the new hall next to it seems to blend into it very nicely, with a large bay window at the front.

Wellesley College façade (photo by John)

The large bay window of the new hall (photo by John)

The hall was set up with seating on three sides, the orchestra in the bay window, and the “stage” in the middle. The only “setting” was a painting of the period (mid-18th century) projected onto a large screen overhead.

I am afraid that the opera was a bit of a disappointment. I suppose my musical tastes are not very sophisticated and Richard Strauss’ music is not terribly easy on the ear – at least not to me. Composed in 1910, it is not in the late 18th century classical music mould. And though it was all sung in English, we could not actually hear the words, so much of the time we were in the dark as to what was being said (sung). The acting was a bit dreary too - there wasn't a lot happening, especially in the first act. During the intermission we debated whether we should cut our losses and sneak out, or hang in there and hope it would improve. We stayed, and fortunately the pace picked up a bit during the second and third act. The singing was very good, but I think I shall think twice before attending a Strauss opera again.

The cast of “Der Rosenkavalier” take their bows (photo by John)

Petone to Days Bay

Question: How do the weather gods know that 28 February is the official end of summer in New Zealand?

Here we were, getting to 28 February, and thinking that summer had arrived at last, then wham! late in the day we were hit with a sudden drop in temperature and cold rain! A couple of days respite, and then a southerly storm! Rain, thunder and lightning, and cold! Two days ago it was so cold that it warranted having the heater on in the evening, and an extra blanket on the bed. And it’s only March! It felt like we’d skipped autumn and gone straight into winter.

We in Wellington came off relatively lightly, though the winds gusted to more than 100km/hr, disrupting flights and ferry sailings, and rough seas dumped piles of debris on southern coasts.

However, that was nothing compared to what Christchurch had to endure. Huge winds during the first southerly blast caused devastation with toppled and broken trees and widespread power cuts. The second onslaught brought relentless rain and heartbreaking floods – for the third time! – in low-lying areas. Especially in an area which “dropped” up to half a metre as a result of the Christchurch earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, and which just fills up with water every time it rains. I do feel for the people of Christchurch – they have had to deal with so much in the last three-and-a-half years, since the September 2010 earthquake.

And then today, it was all over – for now – and we had a beautiful day (as did Christchurch). So lovely, in fact, that we thought we’d better go for a ride before the next autumnal weather bomb.

We rode from Petone to Days Bay. We parked, as usual, at the motorway end of Petone’s Esplanade. The south-facing beach showed the effects of the latest storm, with piles of seaweed and the odd trunk of driftwood scattered about.

Petone beach with the evidence of this week’s storm (photo by John)

We rode without stopping to the end of the Esplanade, through the Hikoikoi Reserve, and across the bridge towards Seaview. As we were riding along, we noticed quite a few seagulls squatting disconsolately on the seawall. Just plain exhausted from trying to survive the storm, we thought. None were worried about our riding past at quite close quarters, none flew away. At the end of Seaview, John took a photo of a seagull sitting on a picnic table. He was able to get fairly close to the bird, and it did not budge.

A tired seagull, resting at Seaview (photo by John)

After Seaview we carried on towards Pt Howard and Lowry Bay. This was as far as we had biked on another occasion. We thought then, that the shoulder was too narrow for us to attempt riding there. But hey, we (I mean, I) have made progress, and I'm becoming a little bolder with every ride. And it was fine. We had to cross the road a couple of times, as the shoulder became zilch.

I was not too comfortable when the road was reduced to a single lane at the roadworks that are in progress on that road. Added to that was the fact that it was just after 3pm, so the road was full of cars and buses collecting kids from Wellesley College. We were glad of our rear-view mirrors!

They are resurfacing the road, and it looks as if they might be adding a wider shoulder, for the benefit of cyclists and walkers - I hope. Great, if that is the case. Some stretches of the road had reasonable space for cyclists, others didn't and could do with improving.

In a few places the shoulder for cyclists is quite wide and smooth. Let’s hope that, eventually, it will become like this all the way to Eastbourne (photo by John)

At Days Bay, we stopped for a coffee at the Chocolate Dayz Café (photo by John)

At the entrance to Days Bay, on the seaward side of the road, there is a boardwalk for a footpath. When we arrived at Days Bay, we were riding on the other side of the road so we didn't notice it. Now, on our way back, John stopped on the boardwalk to take a photo of the debris that had been tossed onto it by the recent storm.

Storm debris on and beside the boardwalk at the entrance to Days Bay (photo by John)

Meanwhile I rode ahead of him, on the road, and took a picture of him riding along the boardwalk, and of the sign warning pedestrians of possible wave hazard in storm conditions. I would think that no one in their right mind would walk along here in the midst of a storm. I did not notice the symbol prohibiting bicycles on the boardwalk until I downloaded my photos. Oh oops! Ah well, no harm done, I’m sure … Or maybe it's just that the boardwalk can only be biked in one direction, as there was no such sign at the other end. We will check next time we go there.

No danger of wave hazards today

The return trip to Petone was uneventful, and we didn’t stop until we got back to the car. We had ridden 23 kms. Very satisfying for what was going to be “just a short ride”.