Kapiti Coast and Wellington

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Day 39: Waikanae to Pukerua Bay (28km) 

We left our motel early, clean and wearing clean clothes (hey, we know to not take these things for granted now!) and headed along the river track to Waikanae beach. Once on the beach we continued for another 15km (mostly along the beach) to Paekakariki, via Raumati for morning tea. 

Once at Paekakariki we had some lunch then left our packs at our hotel to do the next leg with “slack packs” (basically just a bottle of water each and something warm just in case). 

The next leg was an incredibly exciting one. We were about to walk the Escarpment track from Paekakariki to Pukerua Bay.  

This was AMAZING! The views were fantastic! We would both highly recommend this walk to anyone. We had driven the “high” road above the track as well as the State Highway below the track before so to now be able to walk along in between was fantastic.  

Once at Pukerua Bay we then got the train back to Paekakariki and had a delicious meal at our hotel.

Another great day.  











Raumati playground. Oh to be a kid again! 

Walking in to Paekakariki


Below are photos from the Escarpment walk:
















Day 40: Porirua to Wellington CBD  (33km) 

The observant amongst you will have noticed a gap here. Yesterday we finished at Pukerua Bay and today we started at Porirua. Having looked at the map and read the trail notes we decided to skip the section between these two places as it was predominantly along the side of the State Highway.

So instead we got a train from Paekakariki to Porirua and picked up the track again there. 




And what a fantastic day it brought us! Our first climb of the day was up Colonnial Knob Walkway to Colonnial Knob Summit. Obviously a big hit with the locals (some of whom walk up there every day apparently) it is a friendly (but not insignificant climb) for walkers and mountain bikers, promising (and delivering) great views at the top. Very rewarding! 


Looking across to the South Island with the wind farm in the foreground  





From there we dropped down and moved across to then summit another mountain, Mt Kaukau. The views here were even better! We could see even more of the South Island, even identifying (amongst other things) that the Kaikoura peaks had snow on them. 









Our final “climb” of the day was up the Town Belt, after which we descended down, through the Botanical Gardens and Bolton Road Cemetery  in to the CBD.  

We had booked a room in very central backpackers for the night and fortunately they had a bar next door which we were very happy to visit to raise a toast to another good day with a cold beer.

A long and tough day but definitely a good one. Wellington and its surrounds are beautiful.  

Day 41: Wellington CBD to Island Bay (12km) 

A very exciting day for us, our last day on the North Island! 

After breakfast we followed the Southern Walkway over Mt Victoria and Mt Albert before dropping down to Island Bay. 

Island Bay is the last point on the Te Araroa trail in the North Island. It felt great to reach the stone commemorating the opening of the trail.  We have now covered over 1100km out of our 3000km mission.  

Next stop, the South Island and the beautiful Queen Charlotte Track. 

































Comments

  1. Unknown31 January 2022 at 11:30

    Well done for completing Te Ika a Maui! Looking forward to reading about your adventures in Te Wai Pounamu.

    ReplyDelete

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