A road walk along Herepuru Rd and back

Trigger Warning: images of roadkill at the bottom of the post.

A little preliminary explanation - at the end of last week (Sunday) I weighed myself and realised I was about 14kgs heavier than I was 22 months ago, just after returning to New Zealand, which is an extra 20% of weight (on top of what I was), and it put me well into the 'overweight' category for my BMI.  I wasn't happy (I'm still not happy) that I let the weight gain creep up on me over that time and also that I basically ignored it.  I decided then and there to eliminate sugar, carbs, and alcohol from my diet until I had the weight back to a more respectable number, oh, and not snack after dinner.  I also decided to get more active, as I had been living the life of a sloth recently.  At the beginning of this week (Monday) I walked 26km in a loop along a number of roads - I didn't blog about that (I didn't even take photos), and today (Saturday) I decided to do most of that walk again, but this time a 'there and back' route leaving out the busy road section that I hated.

Today's route

I started in Matata, between the east and west lagoons, then headed west, along the recently destroyed walkway - I say destroyed, but technically it was 'managed' by having diggers/bulldozers remove all vegetation from either side of said path, and a load of heavy gravel dumped along the length of that section of path.  The boulders and chains at each end of the walkway would have prevented vehicles access, however the metal loop that the end of the chain was attached to was not even sunk into the boulder, so could be merely pulled out, and someone had managed to detach the chain from the loop anyway.

 

After passing the west lagoon, I crossed the stream and then turned left to access Clem Elliot Drive, where the houses have been removed because of a ban on human habitation in this area, as a result of the 2005 flooding.  One house remains standing, I understand they have some deal with the council due to poor health.

Looking West

Looking East

Clem Elliot Drive

I continued straight until the road became a track and veered to the left to intersect with an old abandoned section of roadway that I think used to be part of the main highway.  This short section of road parallels the current main highway, with the railway in between the two, until turning over the train tracks and connecting with the current highway.

The old highway?  Note the double yellow lines

From here it was a 1.5km walk alongside the main highway.  It is a little harrowing, but there is a grass verge a few metres wide, so safe enough unless a vehicle leaves the roadway.

Looking back along the main highway

Herepuru Road begins at this juncture with the main highway, immediately rising up along the base of the Matata bluffs.  After a few hundred metres, and just beyond a section of tarmac that had narrowed to a single car width, the road curves inland.

The road narrows just ahead

Looking out over Murphy's camping ground

The sealed road ends after about 3km from the start of the road, and is mostly gravel for the rest of its length.  Also, the road gradually rises in altitude for its first 6km, curving through the native bush, after which it undulates mainly through farmland, but still gaining height overall.

Looking back

Looking back over the first farmland on the route

There was also signs of forestry in the area.

This 10-gallon drum letterbox was not unique enough to make the later list

The end of Herepuru Road is just ahead

Finally, after 15.1km of walking (from the starting point - almost 12km along this particular road) Herepuru Road ends at a juncture with Manawahe Road.

On Monday's walk, I turned left here, onto Manawahe Road and followed it all of the way back to Matata - another 11km.  Because the frequency of traffic on most of Manawahe Road's length, I chose not to take that route today.  Instead, I about faced, and retracted my steps.

Not long after turning around, I found there was a pretty good view of the coastline from a vantage point, and also realised I had gained a substantial height above sea level (Note: the beginning of the walk was at sea level).

Any photos I took on the way back, I've incorporated in the outbound journey commentary above, so I'll end with a few of other interesting things.  Along the way I noticed that some of the rural mailboxes were creative, so here are photos of three (followed by roadkill photos, so don't say you weren't warned).

 

My favourite of the letterboxes

And, here are the two dead possums that were not on the road on Monday...

 

This possum is looking worse for wear, even taking into account that it is dead

A recent news article mentioned that a naive person in South Auckland had seen a strange animal in their back garden that was making weird noises - it was a possum, however a few neighbours teased the person's lack of local knowledge by stating that the animal was the South Auckland pig cat monkey.

Here's the full circular route that I did on Monday...