Wellington's South Coast

Last Thursday, 4 July, we decided to take our bikes to the Wellington South Coast. There were two reasons for our choice: one was that we had never cycled there yet; the other was to take a look at an area that had suffered severely in a recent storm. We wanted to see for ourselves how bad the damage was.

A bit of background: while we were safely away in Auckland a couple of weeks ago, Wellington was hit by a terrific southerly storm on 20 June, the shortest day. It was as bad as, or possibly worse than, the Wahine storm, which I have referred to in my posts about Pencarrow and Eastbourne (in April and June).

Wind gusts reached 140km/h, and up to 200km/h on the highest hills above Wellington. The south coast bore the brunt of the onslaught as the storm coincided with a “king tide” (an especially high tide that occurs only a few times each year). Ten-meter swells, straight from Cook Strait, battered the roads and buildings all around the bays. They tore up roads and seawalls, and threw debris, including huge rocks and enormous logs of driftwood, right across the road towards the houses. Roofs were lifted, houses and garages were flooded.

There was an enormous amount of damage all around the region, but the south coast seemed to have got the worst of it. This news website shows a bunch of photos, and numbers 4, 11, 24, 29, 36, 39, 43, 45, 47, 52, 57 and 58 show the damage done in the area we rode through on this ride. 

The day of our ride was calm and fine, and the sea was flat. We drove around the southern bays from Lyall Bay, and were pleased to see that there was a foot/cycle path all the way along to Owhiro Bay. All of the debris thrown up by the sea had been cleared away – all credit to the Wellington City Council and its crews – but you could still see places that had been damaged.

On the day of our ride, the sea was flat. John is particularly pleased with the perfect arc of the gentle little wave breaking on the beach (photo by John)

We left the car at a parking area by a boat-launching ramp at Owhiro Bay, that had obviously suffered the sea’s onslaught. A huge chunk of treetrunk was wedged on the edge, up against a signpost that was completely bent over. But all the debris had been cleared away.

The huge chunk of driftwood knocked the post right over (photo by John)

We first rode towards the Red Rocks Coastal Walk, which starts from the Te Kopahou Reserve, the next bay further round from Owhiro. We knew there was a walking/cycling track leading to Red Rocks, but had never checked it out before. Also we didn’t know, of course, how the storm had affected the area.

The damaged footpath near Owhiro Bay (photo by John)

The footpath on which we rode to get there, was OK in places, but very broken up in others. Further along, fences were festooned with debris, seaweed and rubbish.

Where the road stops, there is a track beyond the gates that is supposed to go round to Red Rocks and further along to the seal colony at Sinclair Head. However, about 200m of the track had been obliterated, covered in storm debris, so we decided we’d have to do that another day.

The track did not look promising ... (photo by John)

I have since found out that the track is rather rough and that you’d need a pretty sturdy bike to ride it. Our little folding bikes would not stand up to it. Whew! I didn’t fancy the ride very much anyway. It looks too much like hard work! Maybe we should walk the track one day. Better still, take a tour with Kiwi Coastal Tours, which we heard about in the café, at the end of our ride.

It is an amazing area, very wild and beautiful. The rocks are enormously high, rather inhospitable-looking. They have a terraced look, and I wondered whether at some time in the past it had been a quarry. It turns out that in fact it was quarried from early in the 20th century. 

Inhospitable rocks

 

Near the gate was a large board with Tsunami information – what to do after a long (more than one minute) earthquake, and where to run to. A map showed the areas most prone to being swamped, and it is extensive. Seeing the damage that “just” a storm can inflict, a tsunami must be truly terrifying and quite devastating.

Fascinating, and scary ...

Also nearby is the Owhiro Bay Interpretation Centre. From a distance it appeared to have some displays, but we didn’t stop to check it out. There was a lovely bronze sculpture of a shark in a nice garden next to it.

Bronze sculpture of a shark - Frenzy - by Colin Webster-Watson

After riding back past Owhiro Bay, we got to Island Bay. We had seen in online videos of the storm that the seawall by the surf club had been completely smashed in places. The footpath was torn up, but all the rubbish had now been cleared away, and where the seawall had been smashed, there were now large boulders, put there by the Council, I assume. There were still sandbags around the base of the surf club, and great sheets of plywood blocking windows and doors.

Ripped-up footpath and road at Island Bay (photo by John)

Boulders replace the smashed seawall

The island Taputeranga in the bay, looked very peaceful on this lovely day, and as always, it reminded me of the Famous Five stories – the ones where they track down smugglers or other villains on an uninhabited island off the coast during their “hols”. Ah, the stuff of childhood dreams …

Taputeranga Island in the middle of Island Bay (photo by John)

In fact the island, which gives the area its name of Island Bay, was at one time the site of a Māori Pā. The normally sheltered bay later became a settlement for Italian, Greek and Shetland fishing communities. The bay is still being used to moor their fishing boats.

Fishing boats moored in Island Bay (photo by John)

Further round near Houghton Bay, the road rises high above the beach. In some places the cliff had been undermined and a bit of the footpath had slipped down the hill. Bright orange safety netting surrounded the area.

A collapsed footpath near Houghton Bay (photo by John)

I looked up at “The Pines”, where my friends, members of the Ngaio and Tawa Scottish Country Dance Clubs, were celebrating a mid-winter dinner on that stormy night. It is quite high above the road, and looked serene today, but it will have been rather wild up there on that night. I am told the whole building shook, and the staff had had the foresight to brace the French doors with timber, and to secure the windows with duct tape. While we were in Auckland and saw all the mayhem on TV, I wondered whether the dinner had gone ahead, and I was glad to hear later, that everyone had got home safely that night.

"The Pines" Function Centre

Near Lyall Bay, the footpath became a boardwalk edged by flaxes for some distance – to protect the dunes, I think – rather pretty. We came to a point where there was a sculpture in the style of the Rapanui (Easter Island) statues, which had been donated by the government of Chile on the occasion of their president’s state visit to NZ in 2004.

Rapanui-style statue, donated by the people of Chile (photo by John)

Along Lyall Bay, by the Maranui Surf Club, all was as usual, with lots of sand on the footpath and along the road edges. The beach seemed to have been re-arranged by the storm, the tide’s edge was all scalloped, instead of one long sweep, and of course there were a huge piles of seaweed and other debris on the beach.

Beach sand, blown onto the road and footpath, is a regular feature at Lyall Bay (photo by John)

Debris on the beach at Lyall Bay (photo by John)

The sand caused us to have to get off our bikes a few times, as you just can’t ride through deep sand. We rode around Lyall Bay, and towards the tunnel which goes under the airport runway. A carpark at the end of the bay looked pretty ripped up, and there was a lot of rocky debris along the road. In the tunnel it looked as though water and debris had been in there too, the foot/cycle path was fairly caked with mud.

Entrance to the tunnel under the airport runway (photo by John)

The muddy footpath shows that rocks, debris and water made their way into the tunnel for quite a distance (photo by John)

We carried on beyond the tunnel as far as the junction with Moa Point Road. There we turned around, deciding we would do the rest another day. A good thing as it turned out, because when we drove home round the bays, we found that the foot/cycle path actually finished there.

On our way back we noted some houses where repairs were being made, one of them, had obviously had its roof damaged in the storm.

Damaged houses (photo by John)

Near Island Bay, I stopped to take a photo of the “Lighthouse”, which is actually just a lighthouse-shaped B&B. Then, as I had to step off the footpath, I noticed the quirkiness of the next two houses. One had two concrete horses’ heads on a parapet, and the other had a balcony shaped like a life boat. A bit further along there is another B&B, called "The Keep", run by the same people as "The Lighthouse".

"The Lighthouse"

Love that life boat balcony!

"The Keep" (photo by John)

We arrived back at Owhiro Bay, having ridden 19 kms, in two and a half hours. We drove round to The Bach Café for a late lunch. We had seen this café and its owners on the video footage online, and the devastation of the carpark in front of it. The carpark was all ripped up by the storm, but had now been bulldozed to nearly level.  

We talked to the woman serving at the counter, expressing our amazement that all looked so tidy so soon after the storm (two weeks) and she said the Council had been “friggin’ fantastic” in the clean up. While we were eating, the owner, Maraea, came to talk to us as well. She said that the café itself had had no damage. Miraculously, it must be in a little micro-climate of its own. She said she could not believe that the picnic tables on the deck had hardly moved even at the height of the storm. There had been debris thrown all the way across the carpark and the road, but the café had survived unscathed.

Apparently they were open on the day after the storm and continued to serve coffee and meals to Council workers and members of the public clearing up the devastation. Unlike more than 25,000 Wellington households, they did not lose their power. It appears that restoring power to everyone was a far more complicated job than clearing debris, as many homes were still without electricity several days after the storm.

The tables on the deck of "The Bach Café" hardly moved during the storm ...

We chatted about the Owhiro Bay area, where her family has owned the café for over a decade, and she told us about Kiwi Coastal Tours, which is run by her husband Gary, and which takes people on four-wheel-drive tours around the coast, to Red Rocks, the seal colony and introduces partakers to the area's Maori history. It sounds like a much better way to explore the wilds than walking or cycling. 

We drove home the long way round, all around the bays and the Miramar Peninsula. We saw more evidence of storm damage in quite a few places, like Karaka Bay and Breaker Bay, but I was glad to see that the dolphin sculpture outside the very modern house in Breaker Bay was still in its spot.

It is a beautiful drive, and it would be ideal for cycling, if it wasn’t for the fact that it is a narrow, winding road. There is not much of a shoulder for cyclists, so it is not very safe. All the same, many cyclists, braver than me, seem to ride there, especially on sunny weekends. John suggested that they should make it a one-way road, with a nice cycle lane. Wouldn’t that be great. I think it would be a great asset to the city.

Island Bay on a good day (photo by John)

The peaceful view belies the recent devastation (photo by John)

New Plymouth Coastal Walkway - 19 June

Last week we had a short holiday to visit our daughter and grandchildren in Auckland. We decided to make a detour via New Plymouth, so that we could ride the Coastal Walkway. This is an 11km stretch of wide, smooth concrete path along the waterfront, specially designed for walkers and cyclists. At the city end it runs along the top of a seawall, made up of large boulders. Further north, it skirts beaches, sand hills and farmland.

The seawall is made of large boulders (photo by John)

We had enjoyed walking much of this walkway on previous visits to New Plymouth, and thought it would be great to cycle along it. We needed just one day to cycle the track, so booked two nights in “The Urban Bach”, a delightful cottage, where we had stayed before, and which I can heartily recommend. 

I had been watching the weather forecasts all week, hoping that the heavy rain storms due to come in from the south, were not going to eventuate. We left Wellington in the pouring rain, but by the time we got to New Plymouth, in the late afternoon, it was almost fine. However, the nasty stuff returned overnight, and we woke to torrential rain. Fortunately by 11am, it had abated to intermittent showers, so we decided to brave the wet, and go riding anyway.

We parked near the port breakwater, right at the south-western end of the coastal track. As we were getting ready, a jogger coming off the track to return to his car warned us that there was a seal on the rocks by the swimming pool. He said it had given him "a hell of a fright", so we should watch out for it.

Getting the bikes ready for our ride

The track is super-smooth concrete – a pleasure to ride on. It is wide enough for walkers and cyclists to share, though today there weren’t many of either about. Despite the weather and dark-ish skies John took a lot of pictures.

The path is super-smooth. Len Lye's Wind Wand is on the right (photo by John)

Even with the jogger’s warning to be on the look-out for the seal, it took John completely by surprise. As we came round a corner near the swimming pool, it suddenly reared up, lunged at John as he was cycling past, and barked at him. John hadn’t seen it at all, so completely did it blend into the rocks. The boulders are dark brown and black and quite rounded – perfect camouflage for a fat, dark brown seal.

The seal is perfectly camouflaged among the rocks (photo by John)

I was behind John, so I saw the seal wriggling back down, and steered well clear of it on the far side of the track. Of course John parked his bike, and cautiously went back to take a picture of it. Seals can be quite nasty, so you don’t want to get up too close.

When we got close to the Wind Wand, it started to rain quite hard. John went down the ramp that leads to the underpass under the main road to cross towards Puke Ariki (New Plymouth's museum and library complex). I didn’t know why he went there, because the track continued across a bridge over a small stream. But it turned out that he just wanted to shelter under the bridge. I figured it was only water and we were wet already, so I carried on. He soon followed me.

It really wasn’t too bad, as there was no wind, and it was not cold. The track went along in front of a cliff face with beautiful sculptural textures. Sandstone, probably of volcanic origin, shaped by the wind and the water.

Sculptural textures on the cliff face (photo by John)

Past the Te Henui Stream, over the bridge towards the surf beach. Last summer there was a coffee-and-icecream caravan here, and a quirky row of old, but wonderfully comfortable, armchairs. No armchairs there now, of course, and no coffee caravan either.

In summer, there are comfy armchairs in which to enjoy a rest, a coffee and a gaze out to sea
(photo by John, November 2012)

On past the East End Surf Life Saving Club. When we got to the Fitzroy motorcamp, I stopped under a canopy to put my hood on under my helmet, as the rain was dripping into the slits in my helmet.

After the motorcamp, the track wound through the sand dunes – not much sand, but lots of flax and shrubs – very pretty. A few ups and downs, nothing I couldn’t cope with. Even so, my thigh muscles do find it very hard to go up any kind of slope, even a very gentle one. Maybe I should do some quad-strengthening exercises …

A wet, wriggly path in the sand dunes

Before long we saw the stunningly beautiful Te Rewa Rewa bridge across the Waiwhakaiho River. This is an award-winning bridge, built specially for the walkway, to connect New Plymouth with the town of Bell Block.

A little bridge, leading to the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge, in the distance (photo by John)

Its design is reminiscent both of an unfurling wave, and a whale skeleton. It is angled in such a way that on a cloudless day, you can see Mt Taranaki framed by its curving ribs.

John cycling on the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge

On a clear day, the bridge frames Mt Taranaki to perfection (photo by John, November 2012)

The rain had stopped by this stage, and of course we took photos, but Mt Taranaki was shrouded in clouds and mist. However, even on a dull day, the bridge makes an impressive statement.

View from the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge

We crossed the bridge and carried on along the track towards Bell Block. Through rolling paddocks, behind the sand dunes.Then along on a boardwalk amongst the flax, and to a look-out from where we could see the wide beach, and the sweep of the coast towards the city. It would have been nice to sit here and have a snack, but the seat was rather wet.

A nice place for a rest, but rather wet

The coastline towards the city, with Paritutu Rock and the Sugar Loaf Islands
(photo by John)

 
Then the track turned inland towards Bell Block, and we had to go up and down some rises, which I didn’t much like. I had to get off and walk a few times. A major hump turned out to be a bridge over an underpass for cows on their way to the milking shed. From the top, we could see the suburban houses, and also a small herd of cows. I was happy to turn around right here, but John wanted to take a closer look at the cows. They were actually heifers, I think – young animals anyway. The paddocks on each side of the track were very soggy indeed and there were quite a few puddles on the track too.

Cattle, soggy paddocks and large puddles (photo by John)

 

View towards the sea from the top of the hump

The sky kept changing from dark clouds, to actually showing some blue sky dotted with big white clouds, and back to threatening rain.

Changeable skies and threatening rain (photo by John)

On the return trip, after crossing the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge again, we deviated from the walkway to ride halfway around Lake Rotomanu, a small lake surrounded by beautiful trees and lovely picnic spots. We saw a gaggle of ducks and geese, all gathered together on the grass.

Lake Rotomanu (photo by John)

The jetty at Lake Rotomanu (photo by John)

A gathering of ducks and geese, and even a stray chook (photo by John)

Further along, back on the track, we stopped for a snack near the Surf Club, as it was sunny by now, but as soon as we sat down, we were targeted by the local sandfly population, so we hurriedly got back on the bikes. NZ sandflies are very small, but have quite a nasty bite, and they are very sneaky, as you don’t notice them until it’s too late.

The Māori legend about sandflies tells us that "the god Tu-te-raki-whanoa had just finished creating the landscape of Fiordland, it was absolutely stunning... so stunning that it stopped people from working. They just stood around gazing at the beauty instead. The goddess Hinenuitepo became angry at these unproductive people, so she created the sandfly to bite them and get them moving". It sure worked for us!

Near the Te Henui Stream bridge, another walkway goes inland, following the stream. We decided to see how far it would be possible to bike it.

The Te Henui Stream (photo by John)

To begin with, it was a smooth sealed path, which soon became a gravel track. It is a very pretty area – the stream, much fuller and swifter than it was back in November, a lot of beautiful trees, camellias starting to flower, and lots of tree ferns. We played tag with a woman walking her dog – we would pass her, but every time John stopped to take a photo, she would overtake us again. He takes his time with his photos, carefully framing each shot, making sure each is a pleasing composition.

Beautiful trees along the Te Henui Stream track (photo by John)

We rode about a kilometer before the path went over a little bridge, and then deteriorated to a muddy grass track, so we turned around. Suddenly the rain came down in buckets, but I was not game to shelter under one of the road bridges, as there was too much evidence of pigeons residing there. I would rather be rained on than “plopped” on by pigeons.

During heavy rain, water from the road above drains into the stream through a hole in the bridge (photo by John)

As we went past the cliffs again, I noticed that there was a gate, which could be swung across the track when the weather, wind or waves made it too hazardous for people to go there. I noticed too, that the noise of the waves rolling in was louder than it had been earlier in the day. The tide was coming in. On the top of the cliff, a house with a tower grabbed our attention. I would love a house with a tower. So romantic! And what a great view it must have.

If I were ever to move to New Plymouth, I'd want to live in the house with the tower (photo by John)

By the time we got back to the beginning of the Coastal Walkway, it had fined up again, and we thought we would ride to the end of the breakwater while the going was good. The surface was sealed but very uneven, and it was the hardest part of the day’s riding because the lumpy-bumpyness hurt my hands.

The surface on the breakwater was very uneven (photo by John)

The port and Paritutu Rock, seen from the breakwater (photo by John)

Then John decided we should bike to the end of the road to the port. We rode along the road for some distance, then onto a pretty little path among old pohutukawas. In the bark chips under the trees, I saw lots of strange white shapes – rather like tennis balls with bits cut out of them – which I suspect were mushrooms. Unfortunately I didn’t get a close look at them because as we got to the end of the path, it started to spit, and by the time we got back to the car, it was teeming and we were thoroughly drenched.

Pohutukawas

We put the bikes away in the car, and went to have a rather late lunch at the “Bach on Breakwater” nearby. We had ridden 29 kms in nearly three hours. The variable weather had made it really rather interesting. Still a very enjoyable ride. The bonus of the poor weather was that we did not have to share the track with anyone. It would be a very different experience at the height of summer, with walkers, families, tourists and cyclists, even “crocodile bikes”, all out enjoying the walkway and the sights. But it would be fun to ride the track in the sunshine, so we will definitely be back.

Twin bikes on the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge