Cape Horn to Grannys Bay

How did I end up walking on such a bizarre location? Well on Friday night I called my friend Sarah (the one from the stairs of death). She said she could only walk after 11am. "Oh crap" I thought that is late in the morning to walk. We will all melt. So I messaged Courtney (Rosa) and we planned a summery midday friendly walk. Well we couldn't think of any. So I went onto the council walking paths site. It is not user friendly at all but a walk stood out.

Waikowhai to Maukau walkway. It sounded good. I knew that the area was covered in light bush and had dog on leash beaches as well as off leash areas. So that's where we went.

The walk itself is 10 km each way but can be shortened into council recommended loops. We didn't listen and did our own.

We chose to park at the top Waikowhai park walk down who knows how many stairs (which were to close together, slippery and large) to the beach. On the way down we walked past a historical changing room, which was derelict and had spray paint and broken glass as most of those places do, but it was interesting to read the historical plaque and cool to see. The path down was lovely and shady with a light breeze until we hit the turn off to the beach. Once on the beach (on what we thought was an outgoing tide ) we walked to the right and headed to Cape horn to go see the look out.

The water was warm and the wind was cool so the boys had fun going in and out of the small waves when they weren't sniffing the sea weed which washed up. The council site says that dogs must be on leash on the mud flats/beaches due to birds nesting in the area. We took the boys long lines so 1. I didn't trip over them and 2. so that they can have a bit more freedom. Along the wet slimy mud we creep close to the cliff face trying not to blow away in the breeze. Sarah then did a slow mo fall, her feet came out from under her on the mud and she kicked out coating my leg in mud before falling into a puddle. I think the reason I didn't arse over is because the boys were my counter balance.

Anyway we then made it to another set of stairs which lead to the cape horn turn off. It is just a straight up along the cliff face tot he look out walk but it is beautiful. Somehow I managed to get the boys to poop at the same time so now I cannot stay at this beautiful view for long. I must find a bin. The poop started fermenting in the little green dog bad while we climbed yet another set of stairs back to the road.

We were back at the car park less then 5 minutes after hitting the road. Back down the first set of horrible stairs and then turning left to continue the walk instead of down to the beach. We ended up in Waikowhai park which was lovely. It is off leash and had a lot of shade which was nice, we looped down to the beach.

Unknown to me it was the same beach as the first spot. Oh well we got back down to the beach and went left along the coast line. Bay after bay it got even nicer, there were some other people doing this track but they went ahead while we stopped to watch some ducks. Up another set of stairs (you aren't even safe on the beach) we came across some fishermen and carried the boys past just in case there were hooks etc around. We then carried along the bush track until we hit Granny's Bay.

By this point Sarah was starving and dehydrated so we decided to head back the cheats way and climb another set of stair to the main road. At the main road we walked down until we hit the beach and scurried along as the tide was coming in to Waikowhai park again and then back up the horrible first stairs to the car.

2 hours and countless bottles of water later we are in the car in the Macca's drive through getting frozen coke and the boys have their Thirsty Dog Bottle

Walk Summary :

Walk time 1 hour 40min

Total time 2 hours

Distance 7.6 km

Covered and all day accessible walks

Offleash and onleash

Beach walk

Good views