Day 127 Concord to Green Island

I had walked the streets in Concord in April but I hadn't walked all the way up the hill and around to Green Island as these streets don't have footpaths, are on roads with higher speed limits and some of the roads are gravel.  All these things meant that I didn't need to walk them but there was a 'gap' in the map so I started walking early in the day to avoid as much traffic as possible. I walked 4 streets today. 

1703. Blackhead Road
1704. Tunnel Beach Road
1705. Green Island Bush Road
1706. Church Hill Road

I had been looking at this view 8 months ago and today I started by walking up Emerson Street.  I had walked the lower part of Emerson Street with all the houses in April and today, I was walking the part with no houses. 

 

Like yesterday, once I left the houses behind, I was walking on rural roads with no footpath and surrounded by farmland, although this farmland looks as if it might be subdivided into houses one day. 

 

The walk up the hill wasn't difficult and looking back gave me a great view of Concord all the way to Flagstaff and Mt. Cargill, which are the hills in the distance.

Once I reached Blackhead Road, I was able to walk on a wide gravel footpath.  This footpath took me almost to the Tunnel Beach Track.
 

Tunnel Beach is a short walk that takes you down a track to sea carved sandstone cliffs, rock arches and caves. Tunnel Beach gets its name from a hand carved tunnel through the sandstone to the beach which the land owner and local politician, John Cargill had built for his family to have their own private beach in the 1870's.  The beach and walk is very popular and often this car park is full.
 

I didn't have time to go down Tunnel Beach today and instead, carried on walking streets. I was able to get a glimpse down to the sea.  I did not walk all the way to the sea as the road from here becomes narrow with cars traveling at high speed. 

Instead, I turned onto a gravel road as it was a much safer option to walk. It felt a bit strange walking on the gravel road surrounded by farmland, with the city streets only a short distance away. 

 

The gravel road didn't take long to walk and I was back onto the sealed road.  This part was much steeper and I was glad to be walking down.  As I walked down the street, I had a great view looking over to Abbotsford, knowing that I have walked every street that I could see.

I also had a great view looking down onto Green Island and Kaikorai Valley with Mt. Cargill in the background. This was a great place to stop and think about how I have walked every street that I could see from here.

And eventually I walked down the hill to join up to Green Island where I had been walking in June.  I was impressed with the great view from here, looking over Green Island and Abbotsford. 

 

There were a few interesting letterboxes today.  The first one is an old gas cylinder mounted on a plinth and the other two were together, one being a large piece of hollowed wood  and the other an old, rusty can with a corrugated iron New Zealand flag behind them.

 

Today's map shows the streets in red that I have walked.  The part I walked today takes in the streets around blackhead and around the gravel roads to Green Island near the top left. 

Distance walked:  5.9 km         Walking time  1 hr 6 mins    

Total distance: 1048.1  km          Total walking  195 hr 04 mins