Cape Sanctuary trip with Afoot, Wednesday 29 April 2026
Banner Photo: The curved bay, resembling a hook. This bay’s original name is Waipuka (literally translated as swollen waters). The remains of ancient inhabitants lie among the sand dunes
Māori named the peninsula ‘Te Kauwae-a-Māui’, the jawbone of Māui. Its name embodies the legend of Māui, said to have fished up the North Island of New Zealand (Te Ika-a-Māui) using his grandmother’s jawbone as his hook. The pronounced curve of the cape represents the hook. Another name for the wider Hawke’s Bay region is Te Matau-a-Māui (the fish hook of Māui). Source: https://www.capesanctuary.co.nz/
It was a real treat to explore part of the Cape Sanctuary with Graham Leach of Afoot. The numbers were limited, so there was some jostling to get on the list! A $10 donation each went towards Te Kauwae Education Trust by way of a concession fee for access.
It was a beautiful morning with no wind when we met at the Ocean Beach end, where we juggled people into three cars and left the other four cars there for our return. We drove to Clifton and up through the Cape Kidnappers golf course where we parked up, had a safety briefing and set off at about 9.15am.
The start of the narrow gut
The walk was initially through the Rough Block Gorge; a fairly wide path with glorious bush all around and lots of birdsong that you could hear above the noise of our boots crunching on the stony stream (and our chatter). Easy, we thought!
But as we progressed, after 30 or 40 minutes the stream narrowed, the banks got higher and we were scrambling around slippery rocks, dodging onga onga, clambering over fallen branches. It was a real gorge with a few caves at the sides, some with glow worms.
Graham got his map out a few times checking where we were and then led us up a very steep bit which proved impassable. Oops, wrong way! Back down, slipping and sliding. An ‘easier’ route got very steep and we were hauling ourselves up banks and goodness knows what. “We will get to the track in a minute and have morning tea in the sun.” Graham was right, thankfully, as it was about 10.45 and we were grateful for a break.
The sun was glorious, almost too hot, and some of us were examining cuts, blood and scrapes; a few plasters were taken out of first aid kits, but no lasting damage had been done.
After the welcome break, off we went over farmland, easy walking on undulating land with beautiful views towards Ranga Ika and Ocean Beach. The predator-proof fence was visible in several places and we could appreciate how long it was, and how much work had gone into erecting it. Still on farmland, we dropped down to the north end of Ocean Beach.
The 10.6km predator-proof fence was built in 2006
Graham pointed out the blue penguin and muttonbird colonies. There is a big speaker set up near the muttonbird colony that sounds a call to attract the birds back in from the ocean at dusk.
There was fun and games trying to open a gate, so several of us climbed over as Keith and Simon investigated how to undo the lock. Simon cracked it after a while, so the others started walking through – almost tipping Fiona off as she was still climbing over! We stopped in a scrubby area where Graham had hoped to show us takahe, but none of them appeared. He reckoned they’d been fed very recently so weren’t interested in him rattling their food bin.
The Māori carving of Para, who was of Ngati Mihiroa descent
We were also shown a small hut with a large carving of Para, a Māori woman, looking out to sea. There were stunning views over the coast and sea and we could see the old pa site and a hill where the locals would have gone for safety if they were under attack. It was very impressive. From there, it was only 15 minutes to the well-equipped Dunes Hut, where we had lunch.
We could see the extensive native bush plantings along the cliffs. They plant about 80,000 each year.
We were also shown the footprints of kiwi, takahe and pukeko and we saw footprints of kiwi on the beach when we were walking back. Graham told us that the kiwi seem to love areas where pine trees have been harvested and the ground left rough, which seems strange as it is definitely not bush. I guess there must be bugs galore for them.
It was a long walk a back along Ocean Beach, with several of the crew in bare feet and walking in the water. There were a lot of spiders’ webs floating around. Their threads looked lovely in the sunshine.
Back at the Ocean Beach end, everyone squeezed into the cars to be taken to the other ones parked at Clifton (except me, who rushed off to buy a house, as you do…)
It was a fabulous day and many thanks to Graham for leading us, and sharing all his local knowledge.
Trampers: Fiona Bryant, Bryan Powlesland, Juliet Gillick, Elly Govers, Doug Matheson, Robyn Smith, John Tovey, John Dobbs, Phil Enticott, Selina Chilton, Simon Hill, Keith Gore, Alison Greer and reporter Di Reid
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