Prairiedogs in New Zealand: Whitecliffs Walkway

Cary and I decided we would use the gorgeous 20 C day for a drive on the Surf Highway and walk on the Whitecliffs Walkway, north of New Plymouth. We left Simon milking cows.
We drove to Pukearuhe Beach.

We started out on the beach with the blue-green of the Tasman sea on our left and the Whitecliffs on our right. We were almost up to the first river where we would go inland up to the track when we had to make a decision. The ocean was already lapping against the cliffs in front of us and the tide was still coming in. Getting a bit wet wasn't the problem. We just didn't really know the force of these waves and if there was an undertow. So we turned back down the beach to the start of our walk.

We came across two fishers who had quite the haul of snappers. They had a rod but they ended up using a drag line of hooks and caught them in 10 minutes.

We started the walk again but this time we took the high track. This was straight up! This walkway uses the Kapuni to Auckland gas pipeline for 14km from Pukearuhe to Tongaporutu.

Your roots are showing!

Very tall and fluffy grass stems.

Behind us was our mountain, Mt. Taranaki. On a clear day like this you can see it from miles around.

Come on Cary! I know we picked the hottest part of the day, but don't you feel like singing, "The hills are alive with the sound of music" ?

Mt. Davidson came into sight.

Yeah! We made it to half way! Time for a sandwich.

These are one of the many stiles along the way to get over the electric fences.

Now the trail took us up and down but mainly down towards the Waipingau Stream.

This is another view of Mt. Davidson.

We made it down to the stream and this was the wire bridge crossing we would take to carry on to Tongaporutu. We would love to come again to this stream with our snorkel stuff because where it comes out into the ocean there is a marine reserve. There is said to be a variety of fish, a large lobster population and colourful exotic sponges.

Since it was another 1.2 km down to the beach we had a little breather then we headed back. By saying back I mean....up. 25 minutes of straight up, including 637 stairs. Whew!

That took us back to Mt. Davidson, then another 30 min of down, slipping on loose gravel, down to the carpark.

Hot chick! I mean hot!

This is the pipeline that runs along this route and becomes exposed in the gullys.

After the 3hr hike Cary rewarded himself with a swim. I went in up to my knees. It was cold but refreshing!

Speaking of refreshing... we drove to Mike's micro-brewery, in Urenui, on our way to New Plymouth. I tried 6 different beers. Mike's Strawberry Blonde was my favourite. The ingredients are listed, strawberries, barley hops, yeast, rainwater, time and passion.

The light was going but we had to stop and see the Cape Egmont Lighthouse. We have been here almost 2 months and we hadn't seen it yet. At a craft sale I found a children's book written by a local author about it so we had to go and get some pictures.