Day 329, Monday 16 July 2018
The Kaipara Coast Highway, better known as State Highway 16, runs between Helensville and Wellsford. It’s a nice twisty road, but despite its name it doesn’t run along the coast of the Kaipara Harbour, but mostly well inland of it. Today I thought I would explore a couple of the gravel roads which head towards the coast from the highway.
There’s a lookout point a few kilometres north of Kaukapakapa which shows how far the road is from the coast. See the first photo below.
Just north of that lookout point, Jordan Road heads west. To save any disappointment, it has a sign right at the junction: “No beach access”. I rode down it anyway. The road turns to gravel after a few hundred metres. It’s good gravel, and there was no dust in the air due to frequent heavy showers of rain. Jordan Road runs for several kilometres through farmland, and ends at a private road, without any sea views. Ngapuke Road branches off Jordan, and runs between a coastal plain and low hills, which makes it more visually interesting. It comes to a dead end, with just a hint of the coast in the distance. If I could climb the hill, I think I would have had a nice view.
Distance travelled: 132 km. Total distance so far: 41,588 km
Motorcycling Streak 