O’Neill Bay

Day 56, Monday 16 October 2017

I rode to Bethell’s Beach (Te Henga) today, then walked north along the beach to O’Neill Bay. Bethell’s Road is closed to through traffic on weekdays at present, so I used Te Henga Road to get to the beach.

From the carpark, it’s a few minutes walk to get to the beach, and there’s a small river which needs to be crossed to go north. The river isn’t very deep but there’s quite a strong current. I walked past the bird sanctuary at Ihumoana Island, peered through a crack in the rocks which separate northern Bethell’s Beach from O’Neil Bay, then took a path over the sand dunes. There’s a sign on the path which explains “This land is owned by Te Kawerau a Maki but is available for the enjoyment of the public”. However, the path is blocked by a fence. I’ve since realised that the proper way to get to this beach is to take the Te Henga Walkway much higher up the cliff, and there’s a track down to the beach from there.

Distance travelled: 93 km. Total distance so far: 7972 km