Paekakariki Escarpment and Nut Hap Progress

It’s hard to believe that I only have a week left in beautiful New Zealand!  This weekend, we did a walk that we’ve been hoping to do since we first arrived.  The Paekakariki Escarpment is a 10K trail that runs between Pukerua Bay and Paekak, a part of the longer Te Araroa trail system that stretch along the country.  We had a gorgeous day Saturday, sunny with barely a cloud in the sky — a perfect day for a walk.

Paekakariki means perching place of the green parrot in Māori.  The track is mostly exposed, with views of Kapiti all along the way, but in the forested bits, you can see how the place got it’s name.  While we didn’t see any kaekariki, the trees were filled with tuis.

Tuis have a really distinctive call – we were close enough to record a bit of this one singing its alien song:

The views of the coast were spectacular, but I also loved looking up at the hilly fields on the other side of the trail, where sheep were grazing!

One of my pairs of hand knit socks kept my feet nice and cozy on the trek.  A hiker told me she liked them in passing — I like to think she was a fellow knitter!

I took the Shire Socks along with me (much to Mr. N’s mom’s bemusement) in case we had a sit somewhere for a bit.  I didn’t end up doing any knitting on the trail, but I managed a few rows at the cafe we had lunch at after our yomp!

There’s loads of introduced gorse on the hills in New Zealand — it’s an invasive species here.  The gold of it in the sun reminded me of the golden yarn I’m using for my Kingfisher (Nut) Hap — I started the first colored tuck of the pattern this weekend:

A little knitting, and loads of sunshine and time outside: a very nice weekend indeed!  We’re heading up to Auckland tomorrow for a few days, and I’m planing to scope out the local yarn shops — more soon!

Happy weekend!