Hataitai and Wellington Waterfront

On Tuesday 7 October, we decided to bike up the hill at Hataitai, to see if I could manage it better, now that John has changed the gearing on my bike, than I did last August.

We parked on Evans Bay Parade, near NIWA, biked along to Wellington Road and went up Hamilton Road. The top end of this road is fairly steep, and though I was able to manage it better this time, I was soon overtaken by another cyclist. As she slowly pulled past me, I said to her she was doing better than me, and she replied that she was training for the Otago Central Rail Trail. When I mentioned that we had done that last April, she stayed beside me and asked me about it.

Just then, who should come up behind us but a police officer in his patrol car. He gave his bull horn a couple of short bursts and then an amplified voice said “single file please”. He waited for me to drop back and for her to move ahead, before he passed us and disappeared up the road. It was a wide road, and apart from him, there was no car traffic, but we were riding two abreast, next to parked cars, so yes, we were in the wrong (refer to the 6th bullet point in this NZTA factsheet).

In the meantime, John, who was well ahead, stopped to see what the commotion was about, and when we caught up with him we stopped – in a safe place – for a chat. Eve, a nurse, told us she was planning to ride the Otago Rail Trail next autumn, and had questions about our experiences. Before we each went on our way, I gave her one of my little cards with my blog address on it, so she could read about our Rail Trail trip. She was delighted and said she would look forward to reading it.

We proceeded along Waipapa, Arawa, and Grafton Roads, down The Crescent, and eventually down Maida Vale Road, back to Evans Bay Parade. There was only one short stretch where I had to get off and walk. I was glad we came down Maida Vale Road, which is quite pleasant, instead of down Carlton Gore Road, which is rather precipitous.

The view towards the Hutt Valley from Grafton Road (photo by John)

Down Maida Vale Road. The last bit was quite steep (photo by John)

Having “conquered” Hataitai, we headed to our favourite café, Karaka, by the Frank Kitts Lagoon. It was quite busy, but we managed to score an outside table. We were amused to watch, when the occupants of the next table left, the antics of a seagull, which brazenly wandered about the table gobbling up any crumbs, and picking the remaining butter out of a little plastic container.

A seagull with butter on its beak inspects the left-overs (photo by John)

Lunchtime in the sun – what could be better (photo by John)

We carried on towards the Westpac Stadium and cruise ship terminal, where the first of the season’s cruise ships – Radiance of the Seas – was moored. This ship is supposed to be “mid-size” by global standards, with more than 2100 passengers and 858 crew. It seems plenty big enough to me. How much bigger would one want to go?

The cruise ship Radiance of the Seas, moored at Aotea Quay

Reflected “Radiance” on the stadium windows (photo by John)

From the top of the Stadium concourse, we took some photos of the port activities around the logs waiting to be exported. A train loaded with logs was waiting on the city side of the concourse, and it soon came out from underneath it, to cross the road towards the port.

I like the red ends of these logs

Wagons loaded with logs waiting to be taken across to the port

The log train, pushed from behind, crosses the road towards the port

At the city end of the concourse, we rode down the wide spiral, which is designed to take hundreds of people down to the buses after an event at the stadium. It was fun to go round and round, and down and down – a lot of turns – but I declined to go back up it to continue our ride. Instead we rode in front of the Railway Station, and crossed the road to go back to the waterfront.

We rode onto the wharf where Wellington’s four tugboats are moored. Only the last one was a good candidate for photos, as there was fencing in front of the others. They are such a beautiful strong red, a gorgeous contrast with the day’s perfect blue sky. We took a lot of photos.

It appears that Ngahue and its sister tug Toia are up for sale. Built in New Zealand, they were commissioned by the Port of Wellington after the April 1968 storm during which the Interisland Ferry Wahine sank in Wellington Harbour. At the time, the old tug Tapuhi, which was of World War II vintage, was not strong enough to assist the foundering Wahine.

Now these brave little tugs, which have a bollard pull of 28 tonnes, will be replaced by two new tugs, Tiaki and the new Tapuhi, which have a bollard pull of 68 tonnes. They were bought to cater for large cruise liners and container ships.

The tug Ngahue is up for sale

Looking up at the bridge of the Ngahue

Primary colours - red, blue and yellow (photo by John)

We finished our ride by stopping off at Kaffee Eis on Oriental Parade, and we sat in the sun enjoying our icecream cones and watching people on the beach. By the time we got back to our car, we had biked 20 km. 

Bikes, icecream, and sunshine – summer is on its way! (photo by John)

Kilbirnie, Hataitai and Roseneath – and a new milestone

The weather has been less than exciting in the last couple of weeks. John was getting a bit stir-crazy, so when the skies started to clear on Saturday, he said he was going to take the bike on the train into town and ride along the waterfront. Although I had plans to go to an SCD dance in the late afternoon, I decided I would quite like to go biking as well.

I had a vague feeling that John thought I was crashing his one-man party, but anyway, we drove to Oriental Parade, and biked to Kilbirnie, where he wanted to have a browse around Burke’s Cycles. It was cold with a brisk southerly, especially around some of the points approaching Evans Bay, but we were dressed for the conditions, with umpteen layers of clothing.

At Burke’s we looked at the latest in folding bikes, including an electric folder, the Flying-Cat Wynd. In bright red, it looked like my kind of bike, but with a pricetag of over $2000, and a hefty weight of 21 kg (compared with 13 kg for our bikes, including bag carrier and bag), it is probably a “no-no” – for now, at least. As John says, maybe in a few years’ time, when the technology is better and our bodies are crappier …

Actually, on the return journey, I would have welcomed the kind of assistance you get from an e-bike. John decided we would go up into Haitaitai Village. I balked – I didn’t want to go uphill! He tried to entice me with coffee at a café at the top of Moxham Avenue. I knew it wasn’t a very good café, but I figured I wouldn’t grizzle since this was his ride (that I had crashed). As expected, we didn’t like the look of the café enough to stop there, and I thought we would ride back down the hill and return along the waterfront.

Wrong! “We’ll just go along here a bit further” said John. “No, I’m not going up that hill!” It was a steep one. “No, not there, we’ll go round the corner, it’s not far.” Well, it was not far – to get to a stretch that was steeper than I could manage! – and I ended up having to get off and push. Grumble, grumble. No sympathy from John. “Serves you right for hi-jacking my ride”. Ooh, ouch!

We got to where it looked like we might be starting to go downhill, and I stopped to take a photo of the airport, just to show how high up we were.

Wellington Airport

We tootled down a short downhill stretch, and then went uphill some more! Too steep for me, so more walking. “It’s not far” and “Come on, it’s not that steep” were John’s encouraging comments. But look at the photos, and see how high above Evans Bay we were. It must be said, though – the views were gorgeous!

Above Evans Bay, looking at the Miramar Peninsula

Above Balaena Bay, looking towards the Hutt Valley

Eventually we made it to Roseneath, where we started going steeply downhill back to Oriental Parade. Here is a map of where we rode, and there is a profile at the bottom, which shows the gradients of the road. I worked out the uphill bit to average about 1:38.

It was well past lunchtime by now, and we continued along Oriental Bay to Karaka Café for coffee and a bite to eat. The cafe was very busy and we enjoyed sitting in the sun, waiting for our food to arrive. We watched a couple of rowing crews returning from their training session, and getting their craft (coxed four?) out of the water, and hoisted up onto a trailer.

Karaka Café was busy

Rowing crews return from their training session

Before returning to the car, we rode along to Queen’s Wharf, as I needed to have a mileage of 15 km today, so that I could reach my 2000 km milestone. There was a market on in the Frank Kitts parking garage, and there were a lot of people about enjoying the lovely day. We stopped to listen to a man playing some boogie-woogie jazz on the community piano. He was very good.

A cyclist plays on the community piano near Frank Kitts Park

We had another look at the new Clyde Quay Wharf, and rode right round it. There are no retail businesses on the ground floor yet, but it looks like two food places – Mojo's and The White House –  and a Day Spa/Beauty Parlour will be opening there soon. It is all pretty stylish, and would be an interesting place to live – though eye-wateringly expensive.

The far end of the Clyde Quay Wharf

Then, just as we were coming back off the wharf, my bike computer showed 15 km, so I had reached my 2000 km milestone. Which warranted a photo, of course!

2000 km! (photo by John)

Back at the car, John said he wanted to stop at Bicycle Junction, the bike shop in Newtown, as he wanted to take a look at the Brompton folding bike  which they now import. John has been fascinated by these incredibly nifty – but expensive – folding bikes, and wanted to see a “live” one (as opposed to online).

The man in the shop – Dan Mikkelson, I think – was very helpful and showed us how quickly you can fold and unfold this lovely bike, and what a neat small package it folds down to. The back wheel folds underneath the frame, and has a little stand with rollers so that it is really easy to wheel the bike around in its folded state – useful if you have to drag it around a railway station, for instance. Or if you have to take it on the Tube and park it under your desk at work – as a London-based friend of mine does.

We have been following the blog of the Cyclopolitans, a NZ couple who are travelling around Europe on their Bromptons – with trailers!  Very interesting and inspiring. I would love to do something like that, but without the camping. I like my creature comforts!