The weather was great for Nordic Walking on Sunday and North Shore Nordic Walkers met at Milford Reserve.
The reserve is opposite Milford beach but you can’t access Takapuna from Milford when the tide is in, so you either have to take the walkway round and up steps onto the road or as we did, walk through the streets and onto the main road, starting off at Kitchener Road and eventually turning into Hurstmere Road.
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| Milford Beach |
Hurstmere Road in Takapuna is lined with restaurants, cafes and many boutique shops; it’s a busy location with many offices and local government establishments. We ducked into one of the side streets which went down onto the beach, it eventually came up along the boat ramp and we made our way onto the walkway from the beach. Along this road there are some magnificent Oak trees and gorgeous houses; one of these homes is Algie’s Castle, at 253 Hurstmere Road. Captain John Alexander Algie came home from a visit to Scotland and had his his very own castle constructed. It’s very impressive and has recently had a major refurb, originally it was called Merksworth Castle. The pathways around this area are not fully constructed and can be very tricky to walk around, particularly if the tide has been in and the rocks are wet and can be extremely slippery underfoot.
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| Plaque at Takapuna Fossil Forest |
We left the beach and walked along near the Boat Ramp cafe on the right, I can recommend the coffee there although it’s an extremely busy place and can be quite noisy if the tractors are heaving boats back and to. A little further along we came across a couple of plaques with information about the fossilised forest where we stopped for a wee while. This area was forest and had been covered by lava some 100,000 years ago. A crater that is now Lake Pupuke erupted and covered the area in hot lava which has left beautiful outlines and imprints of tree bark and leaves, some of them are ancient Kauri trunks and when the tide is out there are hundreds of tree stump remains visible from the boat ramp.
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| Lava at the waters edge and Rangitoto |
Another plaque was spotted further on at the corner of the beach and O'Neills Avenue; it's dedicated to Allan Charles O'Neill another migrant from the UK and a civil engineer, he and another engineer John Logan Campbell completed the first survey and subdivided the Takapuna and Devonport area in 1843. O'Neill went on to to be the city Surveyor and Treasurer in 1854. We walked along the pathway adjacent to the camping grounds in Takapuna and back along the coastline along the sea wall and onto the Giant’s Chair. Now I must tell you that this walk is not for the faint hearted. It can be very slippery in parts and it’s best to take your time or if you’re unsure take the side street and walk around.
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| Some of our Nordic Walker's in the Giant's Chair |
The Giant’s Chair was built around 1926 on the new sea wall, it was Captain Algie that created the chair with the same Basaltic rock possibly to compliment his Castle themed residence along Hurstmere Road, it’s an enormous chair and adds a little fun to the pathway. We continued along carefully and picked our way along the rocks, eventually coming to the substation at Milford Beach where we could scramble onto a concrete path and back to the Reserve. We stopped briefly outside one of the houses there that sports a rather stately looking giraffe sculpture, it’s a delight to see and stands in the lawn looking like it’s munching the tree tops, I’d not noticed it before as it blends in quite well in the garden.
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| Giraffe Hiding in the Trees - Milford |
We Nordic Walked along the beach front and back to our cars, all thankfully in one piece and looking forward to our coffee. We drove to Mairangi Bay and visited one of the cafes, where I was barked at by a small pooch, but after traversing the treacherous rocks between Takapuna and Milford, the little dog’s attempt to intimidate was somewhat lost on me!
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