Waianakarua to Kakanui
Sunday 20 October 2024
This was the first time for many years, if not for ever, that this stretch of coast had been traversed on foot by the club. The walk was organised around a scheduled low tide at 12 o’clock, so the departure from Medway Street was at the unusually late time of 9.30am. The seven trampers drove the 22 kms to where the track into the Waianakarua River mouth leaves the road, where they met another two participants. A car was left at Kakanui along the way.
Boots on, we walked south along the deeply rutted 1/2km track to the mouth, admiring the way the shingle bank across the mouth of the estuary had been sculpted by the competing forces of high river flow and southerly storms. At 10.15 we turned down on to the beach and headed north, initially on shingle and then on to the progressively fine, white sand of Te Hakapureirei Beach. After just over half an hour we passed the closed mouth of the Bowalley stream and, at 11.15 we stopped for morning tea just short of the first obstacle on the journey: Bridge Point. We were entertained there by a surfer on a foilboard riding high above the waves.
The limestone promontory of Bridge Point is noted for the two natural tunnels which go through it and which are negotiable at low tide. We took the inland tunnel and, being about half an hour before low tide, most traversed it without getting wet feet. Coming out the other side, we paused to admire some massive limestone rocks, a cave, and a flat rock platform extending to the next obstacle: Orore Point. As we approached Orore Point, we could see the platform extending several hundred metres out to sea, providing a base for a number of paua gatherers and children with buckets exploring the many rock pools.
After rounding Orore Point, we headed along the firm golden sand of All Day Bay, reaching Campbells Bay about 12.45. Lunch was declared, so we settled down on two handy logs just by the path down to the beach. Two surfers provided entertainment, and they were joined by a third as we stood up for the last leg of the walk: around Kakanui Point. A short exploratory trip around the foreshore rocks revealed a gap which would make it impossible to get around and stay dry, so we climbed the ramp from the beach, past the toilets, along the grassy clifftop past Lindsay’s Seat to a track leading back down to the rocks. The rock formations here were different – volcanic remains of an ancient caldera and the going comprised a mixture of volcanic rock outcrops, flat rock platforms, kelp, shingle and sand. It was straightforward apart from one outcrop which required a bit of a scramble, not aided by the guarding seal. Eventually, we got around the point and came to a higher rock formation which formed a more serious obstacle. Three managed to get over while the other four turned back to find other routes up to the terrace. In so doing, all missed the path which zig-zagged up the bank to come out on top just past Molly’s Seat.
All regathered on the clifftop which we walked around, continuing along the track beside the estuary, and over the bridge to arrive at the Kakanui Store just on three o’clock and enjoy a well-earned ice cream. The drivers were then ferried back the Waianakarua mouth to pick up their cars. It had been a very different walk in perfect conditions, with interesting geological formations, seals, seagulls and surfers enjoyed by Lorena, Julian, Mike, David, Helen, Rodney and John.
