it was a gorgeous day in wellington – so much so that the prospect of sitting inside and writing wasn’t appealing at all. so i threw my hiking shoes on and headed out the door and down happy valley road to owhiro bay and the red rocks walkway.
i came out of happy valley at owhiro bay, a small promenade with a cluster of houses and small shops. from there, it was another thirty minutes to the trailhead. this entire area is a marine reserve known as taputeranga. it extends from owhiro bay east into houghton bay, which is just before lyall bay and the airport.
i’ll be honest, i didn’t know what to expect when i got to the car park/trailhead for sinclair head. even though i did a lot of research on the walk, i hadn’t seen any pictures of the trail and the writing led me to believe it was treacherous. how wrong they were! it’s a mostly flat trail along the water and rocks, though there are some ups and downs, and you have to share the track with cars, except on sundays when they close the gates to vehicles. but even so, i only passed five cars on the entire hour and a half walk from the trailhead.
the trail follows the coastline, which winds in and out of different bays. the red rocks are at the tip of the north island, with sinclair head – a fur seal haulout – around another bend. legend has it that a maori chief, kupe, bled while collecting paua; another legend says that kupe’s daughters cut themselves in fear over their father’s long voyage; and a third says that maui, the mischievous brother, (because there’s always a mischievous brother) had a nosebleed, which he used as bait to catch the south island.
i stopped briefly at the red rocks, but my real goal was sinclair head. i knew from my research that the haul out is usually only busy from may to october, but i’ve seen a few buses from the cruise ships driving out there, so i figured there might be something. i got lucky: i saw one huge fur seal lounging on the rocks. i sat near him for a bit and he moved – flopping his way to a rock even closer to me.
it was a lovely day, even though i got badly sunburned, and it’s a place that i’ll be happy to return to, especially if i’m still here during fur seal haulout season!
