Day 68: Queen Elizabeth Park to Porirua

Distance Covered: 28 km

Today was mostly a “move the dot on the map” day. There were some cool moments, though.

We started with the much vaunted escarpment track on a cold and windy morning. The track climbs up a steep, nearly cliff face to good views along the coast. There were signs at the beginning saying how great it was and that no kids were allowed due to danger and make sure you’re in great shape and etc… In reality, the first and last two km’s closely paralleled the highway and railroad tracks, even coming so near as to be walking on loose rocks from the railroad bed. The middle 6 km were better, though, and even very good.

It’s true that the narrow trail requires caution, although maybe not in the way the signs mentioned… the real problem is that the track is so popular that people were streaming through it in both directions, even on a weekday morning. Every minute or so, we had to squeeze against the cliff face or stand somewhat precariously on the top of the slope to let people by. It’s awesome to see the trail get so much love, though. Hopefully it will lead to investment to make it safe for two way traffic.

Also, the last 500 meters or so went right through a nice neighborhood to get to a parking area. We wondered how the residents felt about a near constant stream of people wandering around their streets. There isn’t a great solution so hopefully they can work together to improve things for everyone.

From there we were following the “Araroa Harakeke” path, which sounds fancy, but in reality was a 15 km hard paved path next to the highway. They did have occasional informative signs which is great. We cannot overstate, though, how low our enthusiasm for road walking is at this point. It is necessary as we get into this more dense city region so we understand. It’s just that it strips the whole hike down to certain truths such as “we are walking an arbitrary line drawn by someone else on a map”. There are no views, the sound blocks your ability to hear a podcast, it smells like exhaust, and it breaks your feet. So 4 of the 5 senses are hammered as you plod as quickly as possible for hours.

There were two interesting things along the way, near the end, though. One is a “lagoon” park with a great playground, duck pond, boardwalk, and (coming soon) a mini water park. It’s a wonderful little park and it’s free for all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen its equal anywhere else. Also, the Adrenaline Forest confidence course that’s nearby was mind blowing. I’ve seen ropes courses and such elsewhere, but this took it (literally) to new heights. Kids were zip lining 100 feet or more in the air from tree to tree, crossing twisted bridges, vertical series of poles, and so much more. Definitely worth checking out! It was $43 per adult and we were sore from all the pavement walking so we had to pass this time. It looked like a ton of fun, though.

We made it into town, grabbed dinner at a burger joint, and then made it to Elsden Camp. Here, it cost us $20 to pitch a tent a meter from another and a meter from their car. A high-pitched whine is relentlessly screaming from a generator. We are surrounded by industrial businesses and an “El Cheapo” used car lot. The site does come with 2 GB of free WiFi so that’s nice…

So today was mostly just something we did because it’s a link in the chain. Nobody except people building this chain would ever waste their day in this way. The good news is that tomorrow we will likely make it into Wellington (not the end, just the city!). Interestingly, there’s actually quite a bit of rural, big hill climbs to be had between here and there. Today may have been the last big chunk of road on this island!