Blackhead Beach, Saturday 22 June 2024
Banner Photo: Silhouettes on the sand – magical effect by ace photographer Sue Martin
This was our winter solstice trip. The programme was for an easy walk along the beach. We were lucky enough to be able to use the bach of Di Reid’s friends as our base, walking towards the north and back and then south and back, with lunch in the middle.
Most left Napier at 8am in a few cars and met Di and her car (which also had Elly and your reporter Gerard on board) in Waipawa at 8.45. From there we drove in convoy to Blackhead Beach, arriving around 9.30.
Our first walk in one direction, heading north to Aramoana
At the bach, we had morning tea before setting off northward around 10am towards Aramoana. Di and Juliet and Marty had their dogs with them, Peeps and Monty. The dogs had a great time, with so much space to run freely.
It was a lovely day, with blue skies and not a lot of wind. And although it was not very warm, it was pleasant. Low tide was at 11.30 and that worked well. The beach is very flat with a large, flat rocky section towards the low tide mark. We could see that with the rising tide the water would come in very quickly. But we had plenty of time.
It’s a dog’s life… and it looks pretty good
There were few people on the beach, some walking their dogs. We did see a few seals at the waterline. After about 45 minutes, we passed Aramoana. We did not go very far beyond that, because we came to a point where a stream running over the beach to the sea was fairly wide and a deep enough to give most people wet feet. And most of us did not fancy that, so we decided to turn around – except for Jane Thomson, who walked on for a bit more and joined up with us again later, at the bach.
The ultimate sunbather
We arrived back at the bach just before midday. On the way, we had seen several seals, three or four on the way to Aramoana and another five on the way back. We didn’t want to disturb them, but one was sunbathing just on the land-side of the beach and we got a photo. We also saw quite a lot of birds, some too far away to identify. But among them were gulls, shags, oystercatchers, pied silts, three spoonbills and several groups of ducks.
Three spoonbills seen in the estuary
There was lunch before the planned walk in the other direction. Out came all the food; there was a lot and it was tasty. These pot lucks work so well.
The weather was nice enough for us to have lunch outside on the deck in the sunshine. We even had mulled wine! What a treat. All the cooking had been done at home and in the supermarket. Most of us really had more food than we needed, including dessert. All the left-overs were packed up to go back home again.
At 1.20pm, after coffee or tea, we headed south along the beach. You cannot go very far on that side, because you run into rocks and that means a lot of rock hopping. Most people’s shoes were not suitable for that anyway. Out and back in that direction was only 2 kms and took half an hour. Back at the bach before 2pm, some of us had another drink, while we chatted about future winter solstice tramping options.
Lunch with lots and lots of pot luck food
And then it was time to pack up and go home. A few of us cleaned the bach to leave it tidy and we were away around 2.30. All in all, a very pleasant, relaxing and social day.
Trampers: Alison Greer, Di Reid, Donna Weston, Elly Govers, Jane Thomson, Juliet Gillick, Kate Fuller, Marie Deroles, Margaret Palmer, Marty Wood, Michael Deroles, Shona Tupe, Sue Martin and reporter Gerard van de Ven
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