Road to St Andrew’s (Part I )

True to my earlier promise, I took a slow walk along Ngatiawa Road last Friday in the direction of Waikanae, and consequently the local church St Andrew’s, of which I have previously blogged. This is a photo collection of the first section of the Road to St Andrew’s.

(Above): The road map outlining the photo-stroll from Kents Road [Bottom right (“A”)] to the Church [Left centre] at the Reikorangi Road/Ngatiawa Road split. I will mention the alphabetic references in this and the next couple of blog posts.

(Above): The steep uphill from Shane’s Corner [“C”] is probably one of the route’s narrowest parts. On one occasion I had to negotiate the verge with a truck pulling a horse-box coming the other way, and a concrete mix-truck on another occasion.

(Above): Once over Shane’s Hill, you get a long straight past the very neat Cru Farm with its couple of horses, as below.

Cru Farm [marked “E” on our map] and the hillside sheep property directly opposite [see below] [marked “F” on our map], have been on the open market for quite some time. The size, nature and location of the properties are such that only a particular type of buyer would be interested.

(Above): The next section of road, what I call The Pines Chicane [marked “G” on the map]. After any stormy windy weather, this section of road takes on a rich brown colour, as the wind-fall pine needles from the lane of tall pine trees regularly carpet the surface in a thick layer.

(Above): As one exits the Pines Chicane [marked “H”], there is a steep embankment to the right with tall trees. Here one looks down a number of metres to see the remains of the wreckage of a car which, I understand, was out of control and careered off the road and down the steep embankment, coming to rest against the trunks of some of the sturdy trees below. A constant reminder to motorists (who are aware of its presence) to drive extra carefully along this stretch of narrow road.

Also at Pines Chicane, I encountered a large number of attractively coloured and decorated toadstools (mushrooms?) – Click here to discover an expert’s opinion as to what the difference is. This particular one [growing at location “I” on our aerial photograph] was roughly the size of a regular saucer. (For the mycologist readers, please keep an eye open for a blog post in the near future showing some exotic mushrooms I discovered at Goat Hill.)

 
(Above): Something one doesn’t easily notice when driving along this road is the above extensive nursery installation adjacent to Amanda’s Kapiti Boutique Cattery at 216 Ngatiawa Road.

 
(Above): A short distance from the Cattery on the opposite side of the road is what I call the Deck House. This is the view of the valley and hills from the road directly behind the house, giving an idea of the breath-taking views from the deck itself.

That is one-third (give or take) of The Walk to St Andrew’s. Continued in Part II