WHANANAKI TOWARDS SANDY BAY

We left Whananaki South Beach and joined the track.  It was mainly uphill with the odd downhill slope to make it interesting.  We stopped and sat on a grassy bank to have our lunch with this view

and then walked past more lovely beaches, several of them seemed to be private

We walked until we reached the point we had walked to the previous week.  There was a driveway/walkway in and last week the cyclists we met told us it led to the memorial.  We walked part way last week but then decided to return.  There was a "Private" sign at the beginning but we had since seen a map which showed it as a track to the Memorial so we went along it and it did.

I had a link in my last post to the Memorial.  Looking down on a fine day the sea was churning, goodness knows what it would be like in a storm.

These were the views either way from the Memorial

We then turned around and retraced our steps back to Whananaki.

We had a really enjoyable day not meeting anyone on the actual walk.  I have just found another website which states that the track to the Memorial used to be public but that the current owners have made it private.

WHANANAKI

Last Wednesday we did most of the walk from Sandy Bay to Whananaki.  Yesterday we drove to Whananaki. (Amy, we went on S.H.1 almost to Whakapara and then turned right.  It was all tar sealed although very winding).

We knew that well known M.P. Winston Peters comes from there.  He was one of a family of eleven and the majority seem to have done well in the law or parliament (which I suppose is also the law). 

Anyway,  as we were headed south the first thing to do was go across the "longest wooden pedestrian bridge in the Southern Hemisphere".  It was built in 1947 to enable children from Whananaki South to get to the Whananaki School.

Once over the bridge we headed along the road then came to a side road.  We thought this was the correct way but were not quite sure so when a Ute (flat topped truck) came along I asked the man driving and he confirmed that it was right.  We had a short chat then and followed him along the road.  Both Doug and I thought he looked like a "Peters" so when we caught up with him a short distance along the road we stopped and chatted.  He confirmed that Winston was his younger brother and we spent some time chatting with him until another local drove up and we moved on. 

The view towards the beach where we stood chatting.

 We carried on down this road to the beach hoping to be able to walk around the coast to the Capitaine Bouganville Monument but the tide was too high (in fact a rogue wave caught me and my shoes, socks and feet were drenched) so we went away from the sea to the actual pathway to Sandy Bay

it is getting late so more to follow tomorrow.