Te Araroa - The Long Pathway - Waikanae to Paekakariki

This walk is located on the coast outside of Wellington city so there was a half hour train trip before we got to do any trekking.
I got an opportunity to to grab a coffee from a van on the side of the road before we set off walking the trail , snaking along the bank of the Waikanae river.

Our party soon split into turtle and hare groups with a few stragglers in between.

We crossed the river on a foot bridge and followed the track down into the managed wetlands of the  Waikanae Estuary Scientific Reserve, which were cris-crossed with raised foot paths.

Emerging from the scrub on to the beach we headed for Paekakariki, We had a short break in Paraparaumu to have lunch and scoff Kapiti Island ice creams (the local gourmet stuff).

The tide waits for no man

One of our party started to get phone calls from a couple of stragglers who had got a bit distracted with their conversation and didn't notice the group they were following, crossing over the foot bridge. They found themselves on the wrong side of the estuary. There was an attempt to wade across the mouth of the river but found soon got too high for comfort. The phone updates to the main group suddenly ended and we later discovered that the phone had been dropped into the river.

Our group was taking our time and found that a section of beach had disappeared under the tide. Our progress was hindered by the terrible rocky surface that we were forced to then travel over.

Some walks, you start off all fresh and looking about, chatting  taking photos. Eventually (usually on the longer treks) the group  gets to that two-thirds point and all we want is to get to the end, hit a pub, and sit down.

Two girls were so busy chatting that they missed the river crossing

This was a hike organised by Adventure Wellington Meetup Group

Below is a map of our hike including points of interest that you can click on...

View Waikanae to Paekakariki in a larger map