Took a walk downtown

This morning I took a walk downtown in the sunshine.


There's an attractive café on the corner of Broadway, and the tables are usually occupied. But I was walking quite early, when the tables looked very cheerful with just the morning sunshine for company.

The Broadtop shopping centre used to be full of quite 'mainstream' shops, but now has more secondhand and alternative type shops. I quite like the suburban, laid-back vibe.

 The light was at 'different' angles at this hour, and I liked the way it caught the lines at the entrance to St Pat's.

Finally I reached the Square, and there were tables and chairs galore for me to choose from: I should have taken a picnic brunch...

A walk along the beach

It's only a month now until I leave on my trip, and I felt the need to have a good dose of a Kiwi beach walk today. It was a lovely calm, warm morning and Himatangi Beach was at its glorious best.

It's a long, flat beach, and the tide was fairly far out when I arrived, so there was lots of firm sand to walk along.

I meandered for about an hour and a half, paddling my feet in the shallow wavelets, greeting the occasional fisherman, dog-walker or jogger as we passed each other. And I enjoyed noticing the 'little things' on the sand...

 ...the flotsam and jetsam being tossed in today's tiny waves. (It was so calm I almost began to wonder if I had stumbled onto an east-coast beach by mistake.)

And then I walked back again, back to my car. And I will hold the memory of this beach walk warm against my heart, to give me strength on any 'hard' days when I am far away from home.

'Foreigners' tend to think that Palmy is so unfashionably 'inland'- but it only takes half an hour to reach Himatangi beach. I'll be back here again as soon as I get home...

Gorge Closure

It's hard to believe how many months the Gorge road has now been closed- and there is still so much slip clearance and stabilization to be done.

At first it seemed like the Gorge track was closed as well, but there is now a sign that makes it clear you can travel ahead to the DOC carpark if you want to walk the track. 

And from the first viewpoint, after about half an hour's climb at my speed,  you do get a small view of the slip.

 

I think I would be very giddy if I had to work along this terrace that is being constructed on the slipface. What a huge job they have done already...

Back in the Gorge

Sunday was Gorge day this weekend. After the rain and cold of Saturday (though the weather bomb fortunately passed us by) the sun was shining warmly as I headed onto the track. And the sunlight was just catching the wee waterfall you see as you emerge from the under-the-road passage.

You could see that progress had been made on the benching since the last time I was here, though the slip still looks very large.

I wonder if the road will be open by the time I return to New Zealand in July?

It's autumn now, so not so surprising to see fungus of various kinds along the track. This orange fungi is quite prominent- quite fluro, and stands out in the dark!

One thing that always amazes me is the sheer variety of fungi, many growing from rotten logs or tree trunks. I seem to often see kinds I have never seen before...

And I always like to see leaves lying on the track, caught by the light that is filtering through. So many little treasures to notice along the way...

Calm before the storm

We have been promised a 'weather bomb' in the coming hours, so I decided I should get out and walkabout this morning while I still could- so here are a few 'bits and pieces' from along Turitea Walkway.

We have a series of quite interesting drain covers here in Palmy, that show some of our native stream fauna and flora:- this 'brown mudfish' cover was over a storm water drain near the bridge where I parked.

Near the Turitea Stream they had been renewing a bit of the track where some of the path had slipped away into the stream- and I found the cut surface of this felled tree trunk quite beautiful.

I always love catching sight of the light on drops of water, and mostly I see it on spiderwebs or plants. But on the ground this morning I caught sight of a gleam from the ground at my feet, and there were droplets on some fallen cicada wings.

It was eerily calm this morning- definitely the calm before a storm. And in a more northerly direction looking towards the ranges, the sky definitely had that weird pre-storm appearance.

 But looking in a more southeast direction, the sky still looked more blue and less threatening...

 I am becoming very conscious these days that my 'training' time is drawing to a close, and in less than six weeks I will be heading off to France for some much more intensive walking. And somehow that makes me more conscious of 'local' signs here at home. When I walked in France and Spain last time, I became quite intrigued by taking photos of signs, so much so that I 'stopped myself' from taking such a 'ridiculous' number of them. But I actually really like looking at photos of signs later on- they tell such a very regional story. I will be sure to take plenty of them this time, without censoring myself!

As I neared Old West Rd and came to this pond, the whole scene looked so peaceful and calm in this direction, almost like a summer's day.

On the path heading down to the pond, I was intrigued by the shadows of the fenceposts, so took this photo. But once I downloaded it back at home, I realised this photo showed the steepness of the path very well. I have been struggling with how to show 'steepness' in photos, and perhaps this is the simple answer- to show the scene from the top rather than the bottom! Then I will be able to 'prove' to friends and family how 'arduous' parts of my walking was when I get home from France!

Summer has come to an end, and it seems like there are many spider-nests like this one on some bushes. I especially liked seeing this one today. The gorse bush with its sharp spines is an invader into our landscape that is not well loved. But it has been found to provide a 'nursery' for native plants re-establishing themselves- and here it allows a spider to make a 'nursery'. I find the contrast between the sharp spines and the nursery to be an appealing idea...

Well, those are a few tidbits from this morning's walk. Now I guess we will wait and see how bad the promised 'weather bomb' gets overnight and in the morning.

Palmy Parkour

Terraces

The Manawatu Gorge road has been blocked by a huge slip for months now, and it will be months before it re-opens. You can catch a glimpse of the slip-face from the first lookout when you climb up on the Gorge walking track.

Contractors have been cutting a series of terraces into the hillside to improve its stability, but today was the first time I have been able to see signs of that from the lookout. They are now down to bench 4 or 5...

Along Green's Rd

Last night I read an account written by someone who has walked the route I am planning to walk in a few months- and it scared me somewhat! I knew that the Cluny route was going to be very hilly- but I didn't really think too hard about the long distances that might be needed if the limited accommodation is booked out... So, I decided that my 'training' so far has been a bit like 'playtime' compared to what is to come, and today had to be another 'hill' day. And finally, we had a 'proper' summer's day for it. I parked my car at the end of the sealed section of Turitea Rd, so I could walk up the metalled road and through the walking/biking section onto Green's Rd- then return.

There were lots of wildflowers along the way.

 And it also seemed to be a busy time for 'nests' for various insects or spiders.

The sunshine was pouring down as I reached one high point, ready to walk downhill then up the other side again. You can't see them here, but a group of soldiers were training for what looked like mine-sweeping operations. One of them offered me some water if I needed it: my face probably looked quite red and sweaty when I passed them, but I had a bottle of drink ready for when I reached the high point of the walk at the top of the very next hill.

 As I sat down at the high point for a drink and some fruit, I noticed a power pole, that seemed to provide a good contrast with yesterday's small pylon...

 There were quite a few native tree ferns alongside the road in various places.

And to finish- a bee on a thistle...

Man-made walking sights

Today I headed out on the Turitea Walkway again- this time 'backwards' from the Old West Rd carpark, then uphill through the Massey campus back to my car. On the way I took a few photos of things that were 'man-made'...

This decaying old fence-post always seems to catch my eye.

 I realised that I seldom see the 'beauty' in power pylons- but with sunshine and blue skies behind it, this small pylon also caught my eye today.

 I always enjoy noticing how shadows fall, and how they change through the day. I loved the way the shadow from these fence posts enlivened the path this morning!

 Then there was this woman-made shadow as I crossed one of the pedestrian bridges over the Turitea Stream. It reminded me of some of the obligatory 'shadow photos' I took on the Camino in 2008!

 It's very pleasant walking up through the Massey campus. You can make a toilet stop or sit or have a snack-break on a seat. There are not many students back for the year yet so it is almost too peaceful on the concourse.

There are lots of buildings to walk past of course, some a bit ugly. But even this ugly one surprised me with the wonderful reflection in its windows!

reflection

I always like noticing 'reflections' when I am out walking. Saw these reflected fence-posts alongside one of the city walkways near Palmy today.

Manawatu Gorge

Now that I am 'seriously' into the countdown, I expect to walk the Manawatu Gorge track at least once a week until 'departure'. It's the 'best' (ie steepest, hilliest, longest) track near to home. By NZ track standards it's actually not all that steep, and the track has been graveled so it's easier walking, but it was perfect training for the kind of hills/tracks I walked on last time in France.

When I walked the Camino I used to carry little pieces of paper in my shorts pocket, with quotes on, that I'd read and think about during the day. Today I took a couple of short quotes. and one was: "We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand, and melting like a snowflake." ~Sir Francis Bacon. So I was pretty 'switched on' to noticing little things around me, and enjoying them, being aware of their passing beauty. There were raindrops on leaves, fungi of various kinds, sunlight on ferns...

 Then when I reached my 'endpoint' for the day at the "Windy Point" lookout, it was the big view that took my breath away. At this point you can look back along the Gorge, or look over to Woodville and the landscape beyond. Today the weather was in the process of 'changing', with real drama in the clouds above.

 I retraced my steps back to the newish lookout over the wind turbines, and had lunch at the picnic table. The turbines were really humming in the wind. The 'front' was really obvious, stacked up from the eastern side, with little clouds lower down scudding over from the west.

 Not so many people have been on the track since the Gorge road has been closed- and there's a patch where ongaonga (native stinging nettle) is growing well. It is every bit as vicious as it looks, but fortunately I never banged into it today!

 I was a bit surprised to see this bridge. Maybe I have daydreamed my way across it before- but I couldn't find an old track- so perhaps it just looked different with new planks on it...

 Some of the little fungi were quite well 'camouflaged'.

One really nice surprise today was to see these nikau palms flowering. There's quite a big patch of nikau, but I've seldom seen them flowering. I know they are doing quite a bit of 'pest control' on the track, so maybe these flowers are a sign that possum numbers are being reduced.