Kapiti and a Pukerua Bay sunset

Saturday 27 June was a beautiful day – in Wellington at least – and we drove up to the Kapiti Coast for a long bike ride. We parked the car at the southern end of Marine Parade in Paraparaumu and started our bike ride on the new-ish shared walking/cycling path alongside the beach, with lovely views towards Kapiti Island.

About to get the bikes out of the car (photo by John)

Kapiti Island (photo by John)

We rode along Manly Street and some of the smaller roads running parallel to it, and did a little detour to Olive Terrace, where my parents used to live. From there, down a path between the houses, across Manly Street, and onto a track leading into the Waikanae Estuary Scientific Reserve.

The narrow track alternates between firm gravel on solid ground, and boardwalks over swampy areas. Very pleasant riding. According to the website, this is the habitat and breeding ground of more than 60 species of birds, but we didn’t see any of these.

The track alternates between firm gravel … (photo by John)

… and boardwalks over swampy areas (photo by John)

Bridging a stream feeding into the estuary (photo by John)

Low tide leaves the mudflats exposed

After the Estuary Reserve, the track goes alongside the Waikanae River, to arrive at the Otaihanga domain. This area suffered serious flooding in May and several places where we biked today showed the resulting damage.

We crossed the swing bridge at the domain, and headed through Waikanae towards PekaPeka. The destination was Harrisons Garden Centre Café. Riding along the road, we cranked up the e-assist on our bikes and pedalled on at speed. Yeehaa! Very satisfying.

As we were about to sit down on the deck at Harrisons, I suggested that we should sit under the sun umbrella – though by now the sun had disappeared behind the clouds – as it would protect us from the fall-out from the sparrows in the nearby tree. But it was too late. John had already been bombed by one of the pesky critters! The one negative about an otherwise very pleasant lunch.

On the way back we rode through the Waimanu Lagoons Reserve, where we saw a family with a young child feeding a large gaggle of geese. The lagoons are home to many geese, ducks, black swans, and shags (cormorants).

One of the Waimanu lagoons (photo by John)

Feeding the geese (photo by John)

From here we rode up the Waikanae River track. The May floods had inflicted a great deal of damage here. Debris carried along by the swiftly flowing swollen river had been left behind, wrapped around tree trunks and hanging on fences. The track had been scoured out, the water had gouged out great holes in places, and carried away a lot of top surface gravel, leaving behind silt.

Flood debris caught around tree trunks (photo by John)

Scoured-out track

An un-bikeable track and debris hanging in the fences

The waters dug great holes in the track (photo by John)

About half-way along the track are the construction works for the Kapiti Expressway. The piers for the bridge across the river are in place now. Apparently they are three metres wide and 38 meters deep. Impressive.

Piers for the Kapiti Expressway bridge (photo by John)

In most places the ground had dried out, but in other spots the track was a slippery quagmire. We thought it safer to dismount and carefully walk around the edge, but even that was a bit hazardous. A little while later we were overtaken by a chap on a mountain bike who – we could tell by the state of his bike – had relished ploughing and skidding right through it.

A seriously muddy patch (photo by John)

At the Te Arawai footbridge we crossed to the south bank of the river. The track here is wider and in better condition – mostly – but here too, the floods had left their mark.

It’s hard to believe that such a benign-looking river could have caused such floods (photo by John)

We stopped for more photos of the Kapiti Expressway construction on the other side of the river. More evidence of the floods, with debris hanging in the fences and water remaining in places.

The Expressway works on one side of the track … (photo by John)

… and on the other side. Water left behind by the flood provides perfect reflections (photo by John)

Just before getting back to the Otaihanga Domain, we rode on a section of track that was very rough. We biked here last summer when they had just finished laying a new hard-packed fine gravel surface. That had all been washed away. What a shame.

A lovely stand of cabbage trees (Cordyline australis) (photo by John) 

Heading back to the estuary track (photo by John)

It was after four o’clock by the time we got back to the car. We had done 42 km, and were very pleased with our ride.

As we drove home, down the Centennial Highway – the bit between Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay – we could see that the sun would be setting soon, and we decided to go down to Pukerua Beach to watch the sun going down. It had got quite cloudy during the day, and the sun was about to dip below the clouds.

Sunset at Pukerua Bay

We parked the car, and got the bikes out again, thinking we could bike around the point as far as the road or track would allow us to go. At the end of the road there is a tall Māori carving – Pou Tangaroa – created by Pukerua Bay craftsman carver Hermann Salzmann. It looked rather impressive in the gathering gloom.

Pou Tangaroa

Our bikes with their lights turned on (photo by John)

Soon our progress along the walking track was blocked by huge piles of driftwood on the track and beach.

The track had disappeared under piles of driftwood

As the sun was setting John took dozens of photos of the descent of the golden globe into the sea, and to capture the very second it disappeared altogether. He particularly likes the effect that is created when the sun seems to be the shape of a lightbulb.

Going … (photo by John)

… going … (photo by John)

… gone (photo by John)

Though the sun had gone down, it was not dark yet, so we rode down to the other end of the beach settlement.

Pukerua Beach (photo by John)

Dinghies pulled up off Brendan Beach (photo by John)

Driftwood on Brendan Beach

This is as far as we could go (photo by John)

John likes the almost metallic look of the water (photo by John)

It was fully dark by the time we left Pukerua Bay. We’d had a most satisfying day.

Four early January rides

Well now, here we are in a new year, January is almost done and I have a bit of catching up to do. The holiday travelling is finished, bags unpacked, and travel stuff tidied away. We’ve been around a bit – Auckland for a family Christmas, Dunedin for a Scottish Country dancing summer school (just Désirée), and Christchurch for a guided cycle tour of the Mackenzie Country.

After mentioning, in earlier blog posts, the dreadful wet and windy start to summer, it has since turned into the most beautiful summer we have had for some years – sunny, hot and calm.

Between returning from Dunedin and going off on our Mackenzie tour, we managed four rides in the Wellington area.

Thursday 8 January 2015 – Waikanae to Peka Peka

Conscious of needing a bit more biking practice before we all went on our cycling tour, my sister Aimée picked us up in her station wagon (which has room for three folding bikes), to go up to Waikanae for a ride to Peka Peka and back. John and I rode the e-bikes (with the electric assist set to zero), and Aimée rode one of the original folders.

It was an easy ride to Peka Peka, including the track through the sand dunes parallel to Rutherford Drive. We stopped to have an early lunch at Harrison’s Garden Centre.

John and Désirée, in our “folding bike” T-shirts, at Harrison’s (photo by Aimée)

Our eldest daughter gave us very special presents for Christmas: T-shirts printed with the statement “good things are always unfolding” and drawings of a bike unfolding on the front, and our names and website addresses on the back. What an inspired idea – we were thrilled. This was their first outing.

Our ‘folding bike” T-shirts – back view (photo by Aimée)

On the return ride, we diverted into several new subdivisions off Peka Peka Road. There are beautiful homes here and very large sections. From the end of one of the roads, we were able to ride onto a track in the sand hills, which yielded some lovely views.

We stopped to say hello to some horses at one of the sections (photo by John)

Kapiti Island from the Peka Peka sand hills (photo by John)

Just before we got back to Waikanae, we diverted off Rutherford Drive into the Pharazyn Reserve. This used to be the local oxidation ponds, but the area has now been restored to become wetlands and a recreational area. A new feature that we hadn’t seen before on earlier stops here was a bird observation hut. I’m no expert on bird observation, but this hut seemed to be quite well appointed, with fixed seating and benches to lean your elbows on while training your binoculars onto the pond’s bird life.

John and Aimée at the bird observation hut in Pharazyn’s Reserve

It was a hot sunny day, and we were feeling quite overheated by the time we arrived back at the car. It was conveniently parked near the Long Beach Café, so we cooled off with a welcome iced coffee. We had biked 21 km.

Monday 12 January – Around our local suburbs

We went for an e-bike ride around our suburb and the next. The excuse had been to go down to the café on Middleton Road. After this we crossed the Westchester Bridge across the motorway to get to Paparangi and Newlands. There is a whole newly subdivided area to explore. It is a steep hillside, so the electric assist of the bikes got a good work-out.

We stopped at the supermarket in Johnsonville, and took the “back roads” (without too much traffic) home. We managed 15 km on this ride.

The end of Stebbings Road, Glenside. The road in the background is the relatively new
Westchester Drive (photo by John)

Wednesday 14 January – Wellington waterfront

We were quite late starting out on this ride – about 2:30pm. We parked at the far end of Oriental Parade, and the plan was to ride first to the city end, and then to the Miramar Wharf and back. It worked out a little different. It was warm and fine but with high cloud, just nicely warm, not too hot.

We used our original folding bikes, and it felt so good to ride mine. It is lighter and easier to manoeuvre than the e-bike. Somehow it just felt more natural and comfortable. I don’t think we will want to sell these “old” folders, really – it is nice to have the choice. John has reinstated the original gearing – since I now have the e-bike to ride up hills with, we can now just use the “old” bikes for riding on the flat.

We pedalled off towards the city end. Wellington’s waterfront is just gorgeous on a day like this. There were lots of people along Oriental Parade – people and children walking, biking, skateboarding and riding “Crocodile bikes”, and some just lounging about in the sunshine. We rode around the new Clyde Quay Wharf apartments – what a fabulous view they must have from their penthouses …

One end of the marina near Clyde Quay Wharf … (photo by John)

… and the boat harbour at the other end (photo by John)

We biked to the Westpac Stadium and rode up the ramp to the top of the concourse, and down the spiral walkway at the other end onto Thorndon Quay. From there we made our way to Hobson Street and Fitzherbert Terrace and back down to Thorndon Quay via a path used by the pupils of Queen Margaret College to get to the bus stop. This was a mite tricky, as there were a couple of flights of steps to negotiate, but we managed to manhandle the bikes down the sloping concrete edge.

We had planned to stop at Karaka Café for coffee, but by the time we got there, the café part of it was closed, and it was now just a “bar” and restaurant. So we pedalled along to Kaffee Eis on Oriental Parade, and enjoyed an ice-cream in the sun.

The bikes waiting patiently while I went across the road to get some ice creams (photo by John)

After that we were going to bike to the Miramar Wharf, but when we came around Point Jerningham, a little southerly and the shade from the hill made it unpleasant, so we went back to the car.

It was such a lovely afternoon that we weren’t ready to go home yet, so we took “the long way home”. John suggested we could go somewhere and have fish ’n chips. It was too early for dinner, so we parked in Seatoun and biked to Scorching Bay and back, and around the lovely wide tree-lined Seatoun streets.

Seatoun Wharf

Karaka Bay (photo by John)

At Scorching Bay there were several families flying kites in the gentle breeze. One that took our eye was a pretty fancy model, which looked like a galleon in full sail. We watched it being launched, and it flew very well.

A pretty fancy kite at Scorching Bay (photo by John)

Having now worked up an appetite, we got our fish and chips from what is now Huckle & Co in Seatoun. This shop used to be called “The Greasy Groper”, a somewhat off-putting name. I prefer its new image. The fish and chips were very nice, served in boxes in paper bags. More expensive than our local chippie, but the chips were crisper, and not as greasy. We pedalled down to the beach, and sat on a bench to eat, carefully watched by half a dozen hopeful and beady-eyed seagulls. They were out of luck though. We ate every last crumb.

Fish ‘n chips at Seatoun Beach (photo by John)

Then we biked around the streets some more and found a track at the Oruaiti Reserve. It was a narrow gravel track, which ended, for us, near some cliffs and rocks. The track carried on towards a beach and beyond, but it was not suitable for biking. On looking it up, I think it may end up at Breaker Bay.

The track in the Oruaiti Reserve (photo by John)

The beach where we could not continue with our bikes … (photo by John)

… and so we turned around. In the background is the road to Pencarrow

We then biked around a new subdivision on Fort Dorset and finally back to the car and home around the peninsula and the bays. We biked 24.5 km all up. A very nice afternoon.

Thursday 15 January – Otaki

My sister had to go to Otaki where she had stuff to do in the morning, and then again in the afternoon, leaving her with a few hours to kill with nothing much to do in between. I suggested a bike ride might be a good way to fill the time, so I drove up to meet her there with our two folding bikes. A good opportunity to explore Otaki Beach by bike.

We arranged to meet at the River Cottage Café, just north of the bridge at Otaki, and I had just ordered my coffee, when I got a text from her that she was on her way there. Excellent timing.

We had lunch in the garden of the café. We had both parked in the café carpark out the back, and we decided to leave the cars there (having asked if that was OK). We took the bikes to the road by the river, from where a track led both up river and down river.

The track by the Otaki River

The access to the down-river track was pretty rough, as the start of it leads to a quarry. We stayed close to the river, but the track petered out, and we climbed up a grassy slope to get to another track, parallel to the road to the quarry. We rode a short distance down this track, but it was rough gravel, and went up and down rather. It just didn’t look very enjoyable.

This is where we decided to turn around

We decided to ride down Riverbank Road and along to Otaki Beach instead. The road was quiet and had a good shoulder most of the way. We rode down Old Coach Road, and Atkinson Ave, to Marine Parade.

There were some lovely gardens to look at, and beautiful flowers to photograph along the way. Some cardoons, a type of thistle with huge flowers, drew Aimée’s attention, while I was especially taken by a tree smothered in morning glory – which is considered to be a noxious weed in New Zealand, but I absolutely love the colour of its flowers.

Amazingly huge cardoon flower (Cynara cardunculus)

I loved the colours of the morning glory (Ipomoea indica)

We stopped briefly at the beach and took a few pictures, before returning to the café, where we arrived all hot and sweaty, and cooled down with an iced coffee. We had ridden 12 km, which was about as much as Aimée wanted to do.

Kapiti Island from Otaki Beach

Spinifex is a very common plant in the sand dunes along New Zealand’s coast

On the way back we met a large group of children on horseback on a pony club outing