Day 123 Harwood

Today was my longest day of walking as I walked from Company Bay to Harwood, then walked the streets in Harwood.  I walked 14 streets today.

1666. King George Street
1667. Camp Street
1668. Portobello Road
1669. Tily Street
1670. Hanson Street
1671. Weir Road
1672. Harrington Point Road
1673. Harwood Street
1674. Carnock Road
1675. Stepney Avenue
1676. Kokomuka Avenue
1677. Michael Avenue
1678. Ide Street
1679. Tidewater Drive

I started my walk along a wet cycle/walkway at the edge of the harbour.  The weather was overcast with no rain and I knew I had a long way to go today.  I walked around the shared cycle/walkway that runs along the side of Portobello Road and unlike last time when I walked part of the cycle/walkway, I saw only a handful of cyclists and very few walkers/runners.  Today my aim was to walk the rest of the cycle/walkway.

It has taken a number of years for the harbour cycle/walkway to be built and is a real asset to the city.  There has been a lot of work gone into the cycle/walkway with some lovely bridges around some parts of the route.

 

Along the way there are seats placed with great views looking down the harbour towards the city.  A lot of effort has gone into making this shared cycle/walkway appealing for both walkers and cyclists.

There was the odd side street that I needed to walk up and from these streets, I was able to gain a bit of height and look across the harbour towards Mt. Cargill.

But mostly I walked along the side of the harbour along the shared cycle/walkway beside Portobello Road.  I was able to join some of the suburbs up that I had been in walking over the last few days together.

Commonly referred to as Pineapple Rock, this rock with a macrocarpaea tree on top and looks like a pineapple.  The walkway goes around the outside of the rock.  I had been lucky with my walk today as the weather kept improving, the further down the harbour I walked.

With the improving weather, came improving views.  I was able to look across the harbour to Port Chalmers and Mt. Cargill behind it.  Mt Cargill is the hill on the far left. 

Walking beside the harbour was very pleasant as the weather was calm and with very few cyclists, I could wander along at my own pace without having to continuously look around for cyclists.  There was also not a lot of traffic.

 

And then I reached Portobello where I had been walking yesterday. From Portobello, I continued walking around the harbour to Harwood. 

Once past Portobello, the cycle/walkway ended and I continued walking along on the edge of Harrington Point Road.  The edge of this road is wide and there is plenty of room to walk safely.  The views down habour are stunning. 

 

Eventually I walked all the way to Harwood.  There are only a few streets in Harwood with a lot of them having houses on side and the harbour on the other.

An enterprising local has created a seat using the pole.  The seat is a nice place to have great views of the harbour.  On a calm day like today, it is a magical place to sit.

Not all houses in Harwood have harbour views, some look out over rural farmland.  There are a lot of houses with horses in paddocks close by in Harwood. 

But mostly the views in Harwood are of the harbour and Mt Cargill.  This was a good opportunity to see Mt. Cargill from a distance as tomorrow is my final walk and I will be walking the streets as close to Mt. Cargill as I can get.  

I saw this 'mile peg' on the shared cycle/walkway.  This is the last of the old mile pegs remaining on the Portobello Road.  Originally there was a post every mile along the road from Portobello to Vauxhall and each post had the number of miles to Vauxhall engraved on it.  This is the only 'mile peg' left and marks 7 miles to Vauxhall.

If you are wanting to buy a Merry-go-round then I know of where one is on the side of the road.  This Merry-go-round is for sale. Somehow I don't think there is a big market for merry-go-rounds.

 I have seen some unusual signs during my challenge to walk all of the streets.  While I have seen the 'watch out for children' sign, I have not seen one with a cat as well.  

I walked past a number of nicely painted bus shelters.  These bus shelters have been painted by artist John Noakes who lived in Broad Bay.  John Noakes spent  years painting murals on bus shelters around the city.

There were a couple of interesting letterboxes today.  One is shaped like a telephone box and the other is a metal man.  Both are quite large and would hold a lot of mail.

Distance walked:  17.7 km         Walking time  3 hr 06 mins    

Total distance: 1024.3  km          Total walking  191 hr 19 mins