Paekakariki Beach

Saturday’s weather couldn’t have been nicer so most of us ambled off for a stroll along Paekakariki Beach.  We found a group of volunteers hard at work planting out on the sand dunes in an effort to stop erosion.  It was nice to see so many people out enjoying the beach on such a warm sunny day.  We noticed a family enjoying a picnic and building sandcastles.  A little toddler was down at the water’s edge and squealing with delight as the gentle waves lapped against his toes.  And a golden Labrador was in and out of the waves looking everywhere for his stick.

After a short stroll we stopped at The Beach Store for refreshments.  This popular shop serves coffee and ice creams and has an interesting selection of items for sale.  Bridey and John took our orders with a smile soon had the coffees ready for us to enjoy. 

Bridey and John at The Beach Store

There is lots of outside seating provided for the customers to sit and savour their refreshments, both outside the establishment and across the road on the beach front.   

Ice-cream for him and coffee for her

As I enjoyed sipping my coffee in the sunshine, I noticed several kiwi icons across the road.  There was a red combi van all loaded up for a holiday, the holiday van of choice for young kiwi holiday makers  both here and overseas.  And parked in front was a car with a surf board on top – you can’t get anything more “kiwi summer” than that.  A group of deck chairs invite the shop’s customers to stop and sit a while and enjoy the beach, and gaze across at Kapiti Island in the distance.

Kiwi icons at Paekakariki Beach

After resting our legs and enjoying our refreshments,  we strolled back along the beach to camp.  Propped up in one of the camp buildings we noticed a large framed photo taken when the area was used during the war years.  Camp Paekakariki was the US Marine Corp base during 1942 and 1943, the largest United States Marine Corps camp in New Zealand.  The camp housed more than 20,000 men in and around the present park boundaries.  The Marines were put through their paces with intensive artillery training, marches and exercises in the surrounding countryside.  Some of them were at the camps for barely a month before heading off to battle again.

Camp Paekakariki

The camp as it is today

The weather deteriorated overnight and the sunshine was replaced by heavy rain, leaving the camp grounds wet and soggy.  “Houston, I have a problem”, said our new member Selwyn.  One of his caravan steadies had broken and he couldn’t get it back into place.  Could Robin offer any suggestions?  Robin fossicked around his tool box and with a bit of kiwi ingenuity Selwyn tied the broken steady together with a combination of a length of cord and several cable ties.  That should get him home safely. 

Selwyn doing a temporary repair in the rain

Hitching up the caravan we said our goodbyes, and headed for home.  We could hardly see a thing as we travelled over the Hayward’s Hill, with the low cloud rolling around.

It’s hard to see the road

Once safely home, we unpacked the caravan as quick as we could.  Muffy ran inside, settled down to snooze on the couch, not taking any interest as we trudged down to the caravan and back to the house through the rain.  But we can’t really complain, we had great weather for the the most part.