Pakiri Beach

Day 181, Sunday 18 February 2018.

I rode to Pakiri Beach, which is between Goat Island and Maungawhai. On the way I did a little exploration and found the delightful Matheson’s Bay near Leigh, which is worth a separate entry at some future point.

Between Goat Island and the turnoff to Pakiri is about 2.7 km of gravel, which has always been easy gravel, but today I seemed to meet a lot of cars coming in the opposite direction, so it was quite dusty. That’s the problem with riding on a weekend. The road is at position 51 on Auckland Transport’s priority list for sealing, which means it probably won’t be sealed in the foreseeable future.

The road to the beach, Pakiri River Road, is also unsealed, and the gravel is quite a bit thicker here. I’m out of practice riding on gravel on my sports-tourer, so it wasn’t a very pleasant experience. However, I find the skills come back to me quickly, so the road on the way out seemed much better than the road going in!

Pakiri Beach is a nice sandy beach with lifeguards on duty, but an absence of shade. A group of horse riders came past as I approached. There’s a broad river that the path to the beach skirts around. Much of this river is only ankle deep, though other parts are waist deep. It’s an ideal place for a family to play with safe water for kids. Overall, I was surprised at how busy the beach was, as it’s a long way from any city.