Paekakariki

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Coastal Walk

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stomps
stomps
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4 out of 5
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Coastal Walk

  • May 1, 2006
  • Rated 4 of 5 by stomps from Houston, Texas
Coastal Walk

When I arrived in Paekakariki, I wanted to see the beach and Kapiti Island, lying just off the coast. I really didn't have a clue about the layout of Paekakariki, so I just winged it. I walked directly down the first street that intersected the train line, which seemed to be the main street in town, until I found the beach and some stairs onto it. To the south, the beach became more rocky and eventually trailed off, so I used this as a guide to go north.Just off the coast of the beach was Kapiti Island, a nature reserve that only a few people are allowed on every day. At least, I was fairly certain Kapiti was out there, but I could really only see its silhouette every now and then when peeked out of the clouds surrounding it.I walked down the coast for at least a couple kilometers. The beach wasn't nice for a swimming beach—but then, in these temperatures, what crazy person would be swimming anyways? I thought it was a good walking beach—you could see for miles ahead of you, all the way up to Paraparaumu, and this view was what inspired me to keep walking a little further rather than turning around. At one point I was convinced I was going to walk all the way to Paraparaumu, but that didn't quite happen.One thing I really quite enjoyed about this beach was the seashells. The beach was absolutely strewn with them. I felt like a little kid on Galveston Beach again, walking slowly between the shells, picking them up and inspecting them. This is when I made an amazing find, there were paua shells on the beach! For those that don't know, paua is a shell that is only seen in the cold waters of New Zealand, and is a brilliant purple, blue, green, and pink shell that is used in a lot of Maori artwork and a lot more jewelry. There were not many of these shells—I only found two intact ones and one shattered one. It really was quite an exciting find, especially judging by the amount of paua jewelry I was wearing at the time!I didn't see many other touristy looking people at all on the beach—mostly locals out for a morning walk with their dogs, or chasing after their children. I finally arrived at an area where a large stream crossed the beach and there were a few more children around, and a lot more tree debris—it looked like there had been a bad storm recently, because limbs were scattered everywhere from the trees at the edge of the beach. There was a bridge leading to a little trail in between the trees, so I took one last look at Kapiti Island—which was of course coming out of the clouds now that I was leaving the beach—and took the trail, which happened to lead into Queen Elizabeth Park.

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