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by Michael Lightbourne What a great idea for a daywalk! I don’t know who suggested it for the Schedule, it's the first time I've ever seen it there, and when I was looking at the draft Schedule, it jumped out as something that I could lead.
On Saturday morning at 9am, ten people gathered. In our cars, we drove through Wainuiomata, and down the Coast Road, past the main entrance into the Rimutaka Forest Park, and on to where the road ends at the south coast. Here we met our eleventh walker, who had her own transport from the Hutt Valley.
The walk to the Head is not that far, a little under an hour, but a vehicle track continues along the west side of Palliser Bay as far as Corner Creek and Wairarapa's Ocean Beach.
I was impressed at the almost Medium pace set by the majority of the group ahead, obviously full of enthusiasm with the sunny day we had, and the very unusual situation of having no wind in the coastal environment. And what a nice change to have a walk that is all flat! On our left hand side was the southern end of the Rimutaka Range, not showing any sign of easing off as it approaches the sea, and we were thankful the day’s walk did not involve an ascent of those slopes. On our right hand side was a wild coastline similar to other areas of the South Coast, but with a raised beach caused by severe earthquakes during the 1800s. We stopped for Junch in a grassy area at 12.30pm, a little short of Fishermans Rock. A great Medium daywalk would be to continue along the track to Corner Creek, but you would need to have transport arranged on the Wairarapa side. I called an end to lunch before we all fell asleep in the sun, and we returned on the same track. On the way is Barneys Whare, a hut. It would be interesting to know the origins and use of this hut. Strangely it is set in a clearing and was obvious to us when we were returning, but nobody remembered seeing it on the way out. We decided the conversation must have been so good that we missed it.
The party was beginning to show signs of tiring as we rounded the Head for the second time, and we arrived at the cars at about 3pm.
Approaching Fishermans Rock
The daywalkers were: Deborah Stoebe, Helen Lingard, Colin Robinson, Frank Schleicher, Ralph Johnson, Natasha Wilson, Matthew Gibbons, Robyn Darcey, Aileen Donnan, Christine Montgomery and Michael Lightbourne.