On a chilly morning Helen, Lynn and myself met at Pukerua Bay Station to catch the train to Paekakariki where we met up with Chris. Once we set out it didn’t take long to warm up and as the sun got higher in the sky it became quite warm - a fantastic day to do the walk, only a light breeze to keep the temperature down and clear blue sky most of the time which made for great photos.

The walk started off reasonably easily through bush on a gentle gradient. After about 45 minutes we encountered our first steps.  250 steps and 1h 45m later we reached the top where we enjoyed lunch in the sunshine. It was good to see a variety of other people on the track, families, groups of young people and also some older couples. On the descent to Pukerua Bay we went down 800+ steps (my count), crossed 2 suspension bridges, and a few kilometers of narrow track. We arrived back at Pukerua Bay station just after 2pm, 4 hours after we started.

Last time I did the track with Mark  Bassett he did a count of the steps - there were 435 up steps and 769 down steps (proper steps with a timber frame). My count was a bit different so we will have to do it again to get a definitive total! The website says 1200 so maybe I missed a few!

Helena and Chris has other commitments so it was just Lynn and myself who enjoyed a coffee at Palmers Garden Centre.

Sharon Dunstan