Travis Wetland

Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
Distance: 4.72 km
Start: Car park at the end of Beach Road
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 10th April 2020

Day 17 (I've lost track of time) of lock-down and time to do another 'local' walk by myself (I miss you all!!!). So I got on my bike and cycled down Marine Parade to the Beach Rd car park of Travis Wetland.  I locked my bike next to the "no bikes" sign and under the watchful eye of an inquisitive pukeko, then proceeded to check out the information board. Unfortunately someone was standing directly in front of it and, because I was trying to follow the two meter rule, I completely missed the crucial bit of information that said that the boardwalk section (about a quarter of the whole circuit) is currently closed for repairs (update Jan 2022 - now open again).  Under clear blue, crisp autumn skies and with happy ignorance I set off on the circuit.
Pukeko
This is a walk that I have done a lot over the years but this time I really noticed how all the native plantings have grown extensively.  A big thank you to the Travis Wetland Trust and Anne Flanagan for campaigning for the protection of this area and all the community plantings over the years. It's an awesome walk and now I remember why cabbage trees are called trees. They have grown massive. The bird hides were all closed but I got plenty of views across the lakes and swamps to the birds. Mostly Canadian geese and Mallard ducks and, now and again, a prehistoric looking pukeko would lurch across the path.

I saw two extremely friendly cats (no wonder).  The first one rushed towards me on the path and was aggressively bunty.  The second was all flopsy and rolling around in the sun and dust. I was tempted to scratch its tummy, but...yeah...nah. They looked well fed. Cute.


Suddenly the path ahead was blocked by a cage. My happy ignorance crashed around me and the next five minutes was spent trying to see if I could somehow climb it or get around it. Others must have had the same ambition because it was a pretty high fence and barricaded well at the edges.  Eventually I noticed that three large houses were looking down on me and so I reluctantly flagged it and started an "off piste" detour. At first this went well, there was a trail of sorts, but after about 15 minutes I ended up in a swamp and had to back track back to Burwood road with sopping feet. Walking along the road was better than expected because there are hardly any cars about. I took some side streets and was soon on Mairehau Road and back on the circuit.

For the last stretch of the circuit, the path winds past swamps filled with harakeke and rushes and the Port Hills can be seen in the distance. I started to pass more people - families with young kids and couples walking dogs. Everyone was out enjoying the beautiful Good Friday weather.

I cycled home, back to our bubble, for coffee and hot cross buns in the sun. Nice.

Poroporo

I have GPS issues

Update Jan 2022 - the actual circuit