Day 69 - cliff side
Paekakariki —-> Camp Elsdon 27km
At 6am the first campers came in to make their morning coffee. I scrambled to pack my sleeping bag away and conscious they might think I was a freeloader, tried to tell them my tent had broken in the night. No one seemed much bothered either way.
I made breakfast and very wearily wandered out of the holiday park and into the little village of Paekakariki. I ordered a large coffee from a wonderful smelling bakery and regretted having already eating my boring old porridge. I sat outside the coffee shop for a while on the phone to Mum and then crossed the railway tracks towards the start of the escarpment track.
I’d seen photos of the escarpment track and heard great things from other walkers. The tourist track is cut into the cliff face high up above the highway, affording supposedly epic views across the coastline. So, in spite of the little sleep I’d had I was really looking forward to this morning, especially as the sun was coming out. Coffee washed away the last of the night’s woes and I set off up a lovely graded path up the hill.
It was steep but I felt that nothing was ever going to be as steep as anything I faced in the Tararuas, I wondered whether everything was to feel easier from now on?!
The track was exposed and rather thin in places but the views across the ocean were unreal. The wind was calm and I trotted along, up and down the steps marvelling at the colour of the water out at sea.
There were a couple of swingbridges across the gaps in the cliffs. NZ has a lot of swing bridges, but they’re not getting old - so far they’re all remarkably fun to cross.
The track ended in the little village of Porirua which was no where near as nice as Paekakariki, but I was needing food so I found a picnic bench outside a shop and wolfed down my usual lunch as it started to rain.
After the wonderfully scenic morning, the afternoon was rather dull as I edged closer to Wellington. I was well and truely back in the city now; I crossed highways and entered suburbia once more before reaching my bed for the night at Camp Elsdon.
Apart from the stunning view across northern Wellington from the accomodation office, Camp Elsdon was a tired, rather creepy place to stay. The manager couldn’t find the key for the cabin I’d booked so she gave me a room in the large communal lodge. Showing me around it was clear there were a number of long term residents, a few of whom I heard in the corridors and I had zero desire to meet… I locked myself in my room (which was the size of a rabbit cage) and cooked my dinner in my sleeping bag before falling asleep as soon as it got dark.
