By Justin Atkinson, 02 January 2023
This trip involved a long road. The road to that long road was... long! I had to reschedule the trip many times, as the illness and weather gods kept crashing the party. Annoyingly, there were continued warnings of strong gale force winds. These gusts are common to the Pencarrow coast, as it is exposed to both the Cook strait and Hutt valley.
I was eventually able to find a suitable day. I found myself at the start of the trail in Eastbourne with Marcella and Mariel. The sun beamed down on us, and I noted that the long feared galeforce winds infamous to the Pencarrow coast hadn't decided to surprise us (at least not yet...) However, the weather forecast ominously warned of heavy rain in a couple of hours time. Would the weather gods be nice to us today? Only time would tell.
We set off in good spirits, appreciating the flat shingle track that weaved along between the coast and hills. While the actual weather was great, we soon found ourselves in the middle of a metaphorical storm of cyclists. They came at us from in front and behind. Despite their sometimes overwhelming number, they seemed pretty friendly and good at dodging walkers like us. We somehow managed to avoid being hit, though no promises if you go!
We passed through Camp Bay, where ironically camping is banned. We reached a picnic area just off the track called "the Pipes," though there were no pipes in sight. Sadly, there were remains of a campfire, which wasn't the best considering the area has a total fire ban. Continuing on, we approached the ruins of an old wharf. We were incredibly excited climb all over them. However, we were very disappointed when we discovered that all that was left were three small posts.
We didn't feel sad for long, as we approached the lower Pencarrow lighthouse in the distance... or so we thought. Turns out I was only squinting, as twas only some sort of monitoring equipment. Looking further ahead, we spotted furry shapes moving in the hills. I thought for a second that they were the literal embodiment of the club's logo, the humble sheep. Turns out I was squinting again, as we realised they were actually magical cliff climbing goats.
After waving hello to the goats, we set off to the lighthouses. The track eventually split off to the left, rising up along the hills. The old lighthouse on the clifftop rewarded us with great views of the coast in both directions, lake Kohangapiripiri, and the distant Marlborough sounds. After enjoying lunch and snapping lots of pics, we walked over to the nearby Bluff Point lookout, giving us an alternative view of the lighthouses and even more photo ops.
The skies were growing progressively cloudier, but no rain yet. We backtracked from the upper lighthouse and cut down past the lake, passing an old shelter before looping back onto the beach. There we were greeted by the Hutt city sewer pipe, making us quickly forget any plans for a cheeky dip in the sea.
We passed several old buildings before finding the modern Pencarrow lighthouse. After taking even more photos, we returned to Eastbourne, waving goodbye to the cliff goats on the way. Somehow the forecast rain never appeared, and the winds stayed pretty calm too. We headed home happy and dry, relishing the fact we somehow escaped being victims of the ferocious Pencarrow winds of legend.