Waikanae to Peka Peka

Last Thursday, 9 February, we took the train up to Waikanae and planned to bike to Peka Peka. It was a fine day but there was a chilly southerly blowing. We felt we wanted coffee before setting off from Waikanae, so we stopped at a bakery in the shopping centre. Not that we had any great hopes of a good cup of coffee from there, but the few tables and chairs in the sunshine were sheltered from the cold wind. The apple strudel was nice, the coffee only barely so-so.

While we were sitting there, a tall chap arrived and parked his yellow bike near ours and said “Mind if I join you?”. We remembered the bike before we recognised him. We had met Tony once on a ride around Miramar. 

Tony and his distinctive yellow bike (photo by John)

He told us that he had biked that morning from Upper Hutt, via Haywards and the Paekakariki Hill, and that he was returning via the Akatarawa Road. “That’ll be just over a 100 km”, he said. He talked about various other places he likes to cycle – some very long rides, well over 100 km in a day. He obviously likes to drive himself hard.

When it was time to move on, we debated which way to go along the Waikanae River track. We decided on riding the south bank, because the beginning of the north bank, where we had biked with the Folding Goldies a week earlier, has a few tricky bits – John called them “technical”, I think that’s a cycling term. So we walked our bikes past the shops and across the road bridge to the south bank. We didn’t know we were in for a bit of a “technical” surprise.

We walked across the road bridge to get to the south bank of the Waikanae River (photo by John)

One of those annoying zig-zag gates at the start of the track (photo by John)

A little way down the track we met a cyclist who said “It’s rough as guts along there!”. He meant the track. Some muddy patches and one place where the track was so rough it was the size of boulders. We thought that maybe he was exaggerating a bit. We soon found out that he wasn’t!

We came to a bend in the river, where the rushing water has tended to erode the bank. We biked along here last October and the bank had been scoured out, but there was still a bit of a track then. But obviously since the last lot of flooding, large boulders had been placed there to prevent further scouring. And the boulders were the track.

We had to wait for another cyclist to negotiate the “track”

The upstream view

There is still a bit of a track at first …

… but then it peters out to just boulders (photo by John)

The last bit is just big boulders

Manoeuvering a heavy e-bike over the boulders was a bit of a mission (photo by John)

Phew! Nearly there …

A bit further down the track there was a sign about works being done to improve the river banks, and we saw a bulldozer digging away at the gravel on the opposite bank.

Work to improve the river banks

The track generally was fairly rough, a bulldozer had obviously been through as its metal tracks had left rutted corrugations in places. And near the Kapiti Expressway bridge, the track is very stony. Hopefully that will be improved once all the work around the bridge will be completed, and fences removed.

The Kapiti Expressway bridge is all but completed (photo by John)

Under the bridge (photo by John)

We made our way through the Otaihanga Domain, across the footbridge, past the Waimanu Lagoon, and onto the road through Waikanae Beach, towards Peka Peka.

Ducks and shags share a jetty at the Waimanu Lagoon (photo by John)

A stream outlet in the Esplanade Reserve (photo by John)

At Peka Peka, there are roadworks around the area where the Kapiti Exressway is in its completion stages. We went to look whether the cycleway would be useable, but it appeared not to be quite ready yet.

The start of the cycleway near the new off-ramp from the Kapiti Expressway (photo by John)

After a pleasant lunch at Harrison’s Garden Centre Café, we headed back towards Waikanae. Along the way we saw an interesting construction next to a letterbox. There was a notice on the miniature police box inviting people to open the door. Inside was a shelf, that’s all. We wondered whether it was meant to be, or become, a Little Free Library. Or else was it an address where they were expecting lots of parcels?

Is it a Tardis? or a mini library? or just a BIG letterbox? (photo by John)

We rode back to Waikanae Station via Te Moana Road, which has a nice cycling shoulder most of the way.

Te Moana Road, with the Expressway roadworks in the distance (photo by John)

Back on the 2:30 pm train, we were well satisfied with our 30 km ride.

Waikanae

Thursday 19 November felt like summer had arrived – well, nearly. It was a gorgeous day, but still a little cool. We drove to Waikanae, where we parked – as usual – in the Otaihanga Domain.

We biked around the Waimanu Lagoon, where a class of children was being taught to sail little yachts (sorry, I don’t know the correct name for this size of craft). Conditions were perfect, with just a little breeze.

Half a dozen children at a time are learning to sail (photo by John)

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.