With more of the local Kawatiri Trail open than my previous visit to Westport, I was pleased that a quick loop was on the cards – dodging the weather if possible. Almost thirty kilometres of route from Westport south towards Charleston is open, our plan was to ride road to the southern end of this and ride the trail to Westport for a late lunch before closing the loop home on the highway.
An easy warm-up on highway south and Virgin Flat Road had us at the trail after three-quarters of an hour. We seemed to have caught peak rural traffic on the gravel road, having to share the road with a few vehicles. The easy, Grade Two, wide, well-surfaced (it’s new after all) drops to cross the Okari River before climbing away from it through a patch of native bush. I’m told there are kiwi around, but midday was not the time to see or hear them.
It’s a fun section of trail in the lovely forest; before long farmland is reached. Here it felt that one was hopping from one stand of bush to the next through little bits of pasture – they’ve done well to get access and keep the trail on the border of bush and grassland. We were heading to the sea, Tom and I had some fun speeding downhill on the more open sections.
Out in the farmland, we enjoyed looking back to the Paparoa Ranges and trying to name peaks. Famous scientists seems to be a theme with Mounts Kelvin, Rutherford, Euclid, Faraday, Curie, Mendel, Priestley up there somewhere.
At the coast, the trail parallels the quiet gravel Okari Rd a few flat kilometres to Tauranga Bay. Familiar territory to me now.
Steepest climb of the day towards Cape Foulwind beginning. We managed.
Near the top there’s this handy labelled silhouette of the peaks (that’s the oxidised steel, not Rachel).
Signs of the old cement works popping up around here; part of the trail to Carters Beach is on an old haul road.
We battled the increasing wind to and through Carters, the section near the Martins Creek estuary was new to me and pleasant. A detour into town for lunch and we were soon home.
That’s an excellent little local cycle trail and I really enjoyed it – recommended if you’re in Westport and the weather is fair, looking forward to one day be able to ride the rest of it to Charleston.