Pourere to Maungakuri Beach
Saturday 11 January 2020.
Banner Pix: Phil between the seal and the deep blue sea
Ten of us set off from Park Island on a wonderful hot day, meandered toward Havelock and Middle Road, and down to Pourere. Doug offered to drop us off by the portable toilets so we missed the first 1km from the settlement; and off we strode along the sandy beach.
After a few kilometres, the rocky bit started and we all wobbled around over the rocks and enjoyed looking for different coloured rocks to weigh down our packs. There were some big round rocks and lots of kelp-filled shallows. Whilst in deep conversation, Phil did not realise he was in between a seal and the sea, and he had to use all his strength to fend off the angry animal. A one point, we passed a small building with a 4WD track up to some baches and a lady was surprised to see us whilst walking her dogs. Her mates had left their trailer on the beach and we could see their boat out fishing. We saw another seal further along and despite thinking I was seeing more moving things in the shallows, it turned out to be folk near Maungakuri who were submerged in black wetsuits, looking for seafood. We stopped at exactly 10 o’clock for our 15-minute smoko and then at noon for our lunch break, where we met up with Doug and Geoff who had driven the bus around and come to meet us. We arrived about 1.45pm at the bus and someone’s GPS said we had walked 10 miles with a mixture of faster beach walking and slower rock walking.Kelvin did require a band-aid after falling in the rocks and getting a few scratches.
Doug kindly drove to the nearest car park to our arrival. It was a hot drive home via Kahurangiki Road and we did the full circuit of CHB – something that usually takes me all day on my bike!
Trampers: Doug Matheson, Phil Winters, Shona Tupe, Mary Campbell, Marie Deroles, Cherie Le Lievre, Kelvin Shaw, Sue Gribble, Geoff Donkin and reporter Ali Hollington
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