Joss was round his Dad's for the weekend which gave me a couple of days with a great weather forecast to do as I pleased. I keep meaning to go out over to the Wairarapa but with just 2 trains a day over there on the weekend, 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening, and no public transport to get to the areas I particularly want to visit I would realistically have to hitchhike or cycle, or go on a weekday when trains are more frequent. I therefore decided to save that for another time where I could perhaps stay somewhere overnight with a bit of planning. In the end I decided to go and try out the Rimutaka Rail Trail which I was going to do the other week on the bike. I left pretty early and made a more successful bus journey over to Tunnel Gully than before.
The Rimutaka Rail Trail is an old railway line which linked Wellington and Hutt Valley settlements to the Wairarapa over the Rimutaka mountain range. A long tunnel was constructed underneath the Rimutakas in 1955 however and this remains today as both a commuter and freight railway. The trail is particularly popular with cyclists although I decided to walk it, starting at Tunnel Gully. The first section was through the forest before doing a bit of road walking to reach the official start of the trail. When reaching the start it started to get more of about old railway line feel and the path soon followed the Pakuratahi River and over the Munitions Bend bridge into a valley which was pretty.
I eventually made it to the Pakuratahi tunnel, the first of 4 tunnels en route and the shortest one before crossing a couple of old railway bridges over the river, a particular highlight the one at Ladles Bend which had a great view of the river and Rimutaka mountains behind. The path eventually got to a point known as the summit which was the highest point of the track and an old workers settlement and yard for the trains. There were a few old locomotives up here and a nice picnic area. I then continued on through the summit tunnel which at 584m was the longest tunnel en route before the path decended at the other end along a section called the incline which is the steepest section at an average of 60% gradient. On the descent I passed through the Siberia tunnel which at the other side had the remains of an old viaduct known as Horseshoe Gully, as well as Prices tunnel, eventually decending down to the Cross Creek yard which was another former workers settlement which is where I stopped for lunch.
On the way back I headed back up to the summit the same way through the tunnels, getting some great views of the Rimutakas around me. Apparently the journey up the summit took about 50 minutes by train and bearing in mind I walked up quicker it shows how steep and slow the train would have been. When reaching the summit I primarily followed the same route back over Ladles Bend and the Pakuratahi bridges, before diverging off an alternative route back to Tunnel Gully via Goat rock which was a shortcut all be it up and over a hill instead of round it. It was a pretty solid walk in the end and I covered a fair bit of distance, but it was worth it. When getting the bus I headed straight back to Petone where I sat and watched the sunset and had dinner before going down the pub for a few well earned pints.
The following day was another great day although I had a bit of a lie in as it was a long day before. In the end I decided to go and do a bit of geocaching as I hadn't been since July, tieing it in with going over to Wainuiomata which is the other side of the hills. Geographically Wainuiomata is actually closer to York Bay than Eastbourne, there's just a big hill in the way and on my way over I found a few geocaches, the highlight being this multi where I had to find this plane wreckage. When getting to Wainuiomata I had lunch before continuing to the Wainuiomata Recreation Area which was home to an old dam and wetland area, as well as several swimming holes which were tempting to get in! I then headed back up and over the hill to Eastbourne, finding a few more caches before dropping down into Days Bay. It was very humid inside the trees so I was glad when I reached the coast again!
After a busy weekend it was back to school on Monday, although they had sports day which meant we went down to watch for a bit in the morning. It was probably pretty boring for Joss though as he primarily had to watch everyone else, although I did help him in one of the throwing events. The afternoon was pretty chilled out, and when he got home from school he was pretty tired being out in the sun all day as well as being in his bike. The next day was a normal school day although it was conductive after school, and after dropping him off we went to a small garden centre to look round before picking him up. We even had a bbq in the evening as was such nice weather, fingers crossed summer has now well and truly begun.
On Wednesday it was Joss's week where he goes round his Dad's for a couple of nights, so after taking him sailing I had the afternoon to myself. I therefore decided to pop over to Paraparaumu to visit Melva. It took ages to get there though as public transport in NZ is a joke which I've said many times but it was a lovely day by any means. It was nice to catch up and I even stayed for dinner, not getting back until late. It was a warm evening though, finding a few geocaches on the way back. The following day Joss came home after school for a couple of hours before his Dad picked him up, and after he went I popped into Lower Hutt for the evening as it was another great evening for a few beers down the pub, finding a few more geocaches in the process!
Friday was housework day again and I've got a pretty solid routine now to get it done more quickly. In the afternoon we popped out to Mitre 10 and the supermarket to buy a few things for the house, although all the recent good weather ended and it was horrible outside. In the evening we were going to go out but the weather put us off, although Liz had an accident and cut her leg open on Joss's walker which meant we had to go to A&E which meant our evening was spent there instead. In the end after a few hours waiting Joss's Dad came to pick me and Joss up and took us home so he could have dinner and go to bed. In the end it was a late night as the cut was so deep it needed an x-ray in case of bone damage and then needed stitches, so I had to keep an eye out for Jossy at home while Liza looked after Liz at the hospital. They didn't end up getting home until gone midnight but luckily she was OK!
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