December 14, 2023 Hiking to Biking (Day 78)
Not such an early morning today, but we still had a long bus ride! We rode the bus all the way around Wellington Harbour, through Petone at the north end of the harbour and down the east side to Eastbourne, again to the end of the bus line. We had a short walk to the Wildfinder bike hire stand and collected our e-bikes for a ride around Pencarrow Head, the eastern land at the mouth of the harbour.
The view across the harbour towards the Miramar peninsula. We’re on the Rimutaka cycle trail!
After about a 30 minute cycle against a head wind we could see the lighthouses at Pencarrow head.
The upper Pencarrow lighthouse is the original, erected in 1858 and started operating on Jan. 1, 1859. the lower lighthouse was erected in 1906 because the upper one was frequently obscured by fog or clouds. The lower lighthouse is still in (automated) use.
We finally made it to the base! Now we have to kick in that pedal assist to get up the hill to the upper lighthouse!
It seemed less windy up on the hill!
Looking to the south over Cook Strait. It’s too foggy or hazy to see the South Island today. A lonely little sail boat is bobbing on the waves. A huge cruise ship was passing out of the harbour when we started. It’s long gone now!
Starting our 16km ride back we saw this concrete structure extending out to sea.
Then we saw this sign and understood the significance of the concrete structure, and it explained the smell at the lower lighthouse. Not too pleasant on an otherwise wonderful day!
December 19th, 2023 at 10:21 am
The beach pictures often look more like pebbles than sand. Are there sandy beaches around NZ? And where are all the people sunning themselves?!
December 21st, 2023 at 11:00 pm
The beaches around Pencarrow head are not for swimming! Too close to the harbour entrance, strong currents! Further inside the bay, north of Eastbourne at Days Bay there is a great sandy swimming beach and a dock that the East by West ferry uses on their traverse of the bay to Wellington. We saw what looked like school kids jumping from the dock to swim over to a floating dock with a coach or teacher timing them. I think the water is pretty cold though!