A longer expedition

I'm rather pleased with myself for successfully completing this one. I went with Dad and Judy on a walk from Pukerua Bay to Plimmerton.  We left my car at the Hongoeka Marae which is at the Plimmerton end, and carried on to Pukerua Bay in their car to start the trek.  The first part, to Wairaka Point, is easy.  At the point itself is a gate that hasn't been opened for a good number of years, judging by the amount of driftwood piled up against it.  It has a built-in stile, but as you can see in the picture below, that's been made redundant by the said pile of driftwood.  [Aside: This is the area where Peter Jackson filmed parts of Bad Taste.] Shortly after this the going gets more difficult - you get onto a long shingle beach that goes for miles.  It appears that there was once a track just above the beach, but large parts of it have been obliterated over the years and the bits that remain are a bit hard to find.  Consequently we found ourselves walking on the difficult shingle most of the way. At the end of the long beach you get onto the quarry road which also seems to go on forever and is less interesting, but at least it's easier walking.  By this time my feet were getting rather sore and I was very glad indeed when we came to the quarry buildings and then the marae where my car was parked.  We felt we'd earned an ice cream by then!  After that there was just the rather anti-climactic drive to Pukerua Bay to pick up the other car. (Posted retrospectively)