11 of us took the long drive to Lake Onoke via the Western Lakes Road. This was a walk that had been cancelled twice previously due to bad weather. When I saw the forecast for Sunday, I changed the advertised walk to this one as it is not often the weather is so good to walk along this part of the rugged Wairarapa Coastline. After a photo at the bridge that takes you out onto the spit we followed a track to the beach. It was then a 4km walk in very soft sand, passing a number of fishermen with their lines out. It took an hour to reach the end of the spit, where we were looking directly at the Lake Ferry Hotel. After a few jokes about who was going to get the fish and chips, we had an early lunch at 11.30am. Shame we had no seal to entertain us this time round, but there were a whole lot of shags hanging out. After referring to Google, it seems they were the NZ Pied Shag. In the mix were a number of seagulls and terns, so lots of bird activity. We then walked along the lake for the return trip back to our cars. Luckily, this surface was slightly firmer but as Linda put it – walked 8km but felt like 12kms with lead in your boots. It was certainly a good workout! Most of us called into the Brac & Bow in Featherston for a nice cold drink or hot chocolate afterwards. This is such a lovely pub that Janice pencilled us in for our mid-winter Christmas lunch.

Trip Leader – Judith O’Leary

Walkers – Gordon, Linda, Anne-Mette, Nichola, Nichole, Lynn, Mark, Helen, Delphine, and Janice