There is a network of walkways and tracks on this tip of the
peninsular that is the north arm of Whangarei Heads.
I set off to the southern end of Ocean Beach with the
plan to climb over the bluff to the beach
on the other side.
The track up was quite steep... Looking back down...
I got to the top of this short track and decided
to keep going... Further up the hill.
It didn't take long to get a bit higher... Looking back to the
beach I had planned to walk along.
The track continued up... Quite an easy walk.
I met six young fellows with big packs on their
backs running down the hill...
They had come from Peach Cove they told me...
Spent the night in a hut somewhere there.
It wasn't much further... They said...
Just up a bit further there is a picnic table...
So I kept climbing up... And further up...
I got high enough to see over the other side of
the hills to the inner harbour and probably
Marsden Point Oil Refinery in the distance.
The beach and rocks got further away and the view more
vast as I wended my way upwards.
I met another man on his way down... He had
started at the other end of the track, he told me...
He had been walking three hours...
And it wasn't much further up to a picnic table
on the ridge line and the site of the old
World War II lookout... So I kept going...
This is where I was headed for...
My goal... I was so close I couldn't give up...
What was I... Warrior or wimp!
The last part of the track was quite steep...
Steps were cut in places... And
I made it... Round the next bend was the picnic table...
And an information board about past history.
It was hard to imagine this had been a radar station
and army and navy men lived up here.
But there down the other side was
the evidence... The old relic of the lookout of
Post No 7... Where watch was kept for
Japanese invasion.
Just crumbling rust in the bushes now...
It was a spectacular view and well worth the climb...
On my way down again... Looking to the small
Ocean Beach community of houses
and where my bus is parked
Down towards the rocks again...
It's going to rain... It's much quicker going down of course.
The sand-hills and pine tree forests...
And I'm nearly there as the sky darkens and the
first spots of rain begin to fall...
Down, down in double quick time...
I didn't take a picnic to eat at the top...
Neither had I taken a rain coat...
So it was a race across the beach before the
rain got serious
And looking back to where I had been.
It was a great climb, I felt very pleased with myself.
