Windy weekend walk - Pencarrow Lighthouse

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When you fly into Wellington from the south (meaning it's a northerly and likely a tad bumpy) you see this fabulous lighthouse standing on a headland out the window. 
It was pretty still this morning so we thought - great day for Pencarrow, one of the many walks on our summer list. Well by the time we mucked around with domestic chores, found we had no food so shopped and drove to the end of the road in Eastbourne it was midday before we set off. 

The track for the majority is flat and gravel driveway like. It follows the shoreline with a steep steep sheer hill on the other side. The round trip walk is 4.5 hours according to the sign and I would describe 4 hours of it as easy walking, with 30 mins up to the lighthouse and down more steep and definitely watch your feet territory. 

The views are spectacular. If the wind hadn't come up it would have been awesome to stop at the top a while but by then it was steady and we could hardly see Khandallah across the harbour for dense cloud. 


Head wind (northerly) back was kinda annoying but there are plenty of sheltered parts of the track. We saw people about every 10 mins either cycling, walking, fishing and encountered a few cars and a motorbike heading out to the Lodge (must look that place up). 

The wind brought a wee chill with it so glad we packed coats. There were sheep and birds all along the walk and we think we saw penguins too. 
Our round trip including two stops took approx 4 hours, just on 14km and we were surprised to find apple saying the climb up to the light house is only 34 floors of elevation. Great walk. Will do it again soon. 

Footnote update to this post next day Sunday 22nd Nov. 
after the more endurance walk to Pencarrow and looking for some perspective we walked up Mt Kaukau this morning.  Beautiful day and only a breeze at the top. Yesterday we saw a wood pigeon, finches, oyster catchers etc. today we saw people, dogs with runners and Tui's, Tui's, Tui's. 
Kaukau is 430m elevation, according to apple that's 59 floors. Lovely view back to Pencarrow in the distance. 



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