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 

Day 122 Portobello

I am nearing the end of my challenge to walk every street in Dunedin and tonight I walked all the streets in Portobello.  I walked 17 streets tonight.

1649. Tree Top Drive
1650. Sherwood Street
1651. Blackwell Street
1652. Hereweka Street
1653. Geary Street
1654. Ridley Road
1655. 1663Seaton Road
1656. Beaconsfield Road
1657. Densem Street
1658. Arnott Street
1659. Ryan Street
1660. Moss Street
1661. Nicholas Street
1662. Landreth Street
1663. McAuley Road
1664. Hatchery Road
1665. Allans Beach Road

Like many suburbs and streets in Dunedin, Portobello is named after a location in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Portobello has a number of streets that are surrounded by farmland.

Harbour Cone can be seen from many of the streets in Portobello.  The aptly named Harbour Cone is part of the hills that form the long extinct Dunedin Volcano.  There is a walking track that goes from sea level to the top of the cone. 

 

As I walked further up the streets that climbed towards Harbour Cone, the views started to open up.  I could see that it looked like rain on the other side of the harbour but it was dry where I was walking.

This is the closest I got to Harbour Cone, although if I had kept walking up the road for quite a few more kilometres, I would have gotten closer but this is where I turned down Seaton Street.

Seaton Street took me down  to the harbours edge.  It was a good street to walk down as I had great views looking across the habour all the way down the street.

 

And before I knew it, I was back beside the water of the habour.  The combined cycle/walkway continues around the harbour from the city and this is where I will be walking tomorrow.

But in the meantime, I turned around and walked back up the hill via another street.  This time my view was harbour cone which towers above Portobello.

 

Finally I was able to walk down the hill for the last time.  A lot of the streets in Portobello have views of the harbour. 

Then I followed a street around the side of the hill which took me back to the township where the shops are and back to where I had started my walk.  This is a popular place for day trippers from the city.

My final view of Harbour Cone is with the Portobello Hotel in front.  The hotel was built in 1874 and has been operating continously as a hotel since.

 

This building is Roy's Store and was one of two shops operating in Portobello in the early 1900's  the unusual corner of the building is where the door to the shop used to be.

 

An unusual piece of art that I walked past today is this old boat that has been filled with plants and resides on a bank on the side of the road. 

 

I walked past the Happy Hens premises.  Happy Hens is a Dunedin business that has been making happy hens for more than 35 years.  Each hen is hand made and painted with happy hens being sold around the world. 

I walked past one very nicely painted cabinet.  It has the hills of the peninsula and Harbour Cone painted on it. 

While walking the streets tonight, I walked past a few interesting letterboxes.  The first looked a bit like a lopsided house with moss growing on it and the second was an ammunition can.

I thought that you would get a lot of mail in the wine barrel and someone had a bright a cheerful letterbox with elves painted on it.

Distance walked:  7.2 km         Walking time  1 hr 23 mins    

Total distance: 1006.6  km          Total walking  188 hr 13 mins 

Day 121 Broad Bay

Since I only have to walk the streets on a couple of suburbs on the peninsula, I headed down the harbour to walk in Broad Bay tonight. I walked 15 streets.

1634. Virginia Avenue
1635. Greig Street
1636. Roebuck Rise
1637. Waikana Street
1638. Clearwater Street
1639. Matariki Street
1640. Sandpiper Street
1641. Frances Street
1642. Moerangi Street
1643. Solar Terrace
1644. Holm Avenue
1645. Oxley Crescent
1646. Bacon Street
1647. Cowal Street
1648. Gwyn Street

I started walking the streets down by the harbour and it was good to be able to look across the bay to Broad Bay and see the  the streets that I am walking tonight.

As usually happens in Dunedin, the streets mostly go up and up I walked.  Turning around at the top of the street gave me a good view looking across the harbour towards Port Chalmers and Mt. Cargill on the right.

And then I was back down at the waters edge again.  This has become the normal while walking the streets on the peninsula - walking up the hill, just to come back down again. 

The road down the side of the harbour weaves in and out of the bays.  Being beside the harbour also gives uninterrupted views across to the hills behind Port Chalmers including Mt. Cargill.

After walking around the headland of one of the bays, I was back to walking up the hill.  I have enjoyed walking the streets of Broad Bay as they are usually quiet streets with good views.

As I continued walking around the bays, I walked up Oxley Crescent that gave me an excellent view of the headland that divides Broad Bay.  This was a good chance to see the streets that I had just walked and also to look further back to the hills across the harbour.

 

While walking on the hill, I was given a glimpse looking towards Quarantine Island in the harbour. Most of the homes in Broad Bay have a view of parts of the harbour. 

Once I was back down the hill, it was a short walk around the edge of the harbour to finish walking the streets in Broad Bay.  I have driven through Broad Bay often but have never really stopped before so it was a pleasant surprise to see how many streets there are.

 

I walked past the Fletcher House today.  The Fletcher house was built in 1909 by Sir James Fletcher, founder of Fletcher Construction which became New Zealand's biggest building and construction business.  This was the very first double bay villa home built by Fletcher and this style of home became very popular throughout the country.  In 1990 Fletcher Construction bought the house and have restored it. It is the only fully restored and furnished Edwardian house of its type in New Zealand

I really liked this sign that I walked past.  It is a warning that there are 'free range children' in the area.  I am guessing it is not an 'official' sign but one put up by the residents of the street.

 

I have walked past a number of unusual objects during my challenge to walk every street in Dunedin, and this is the first time that I have seen a cannon.  This small cannon is on the grass verge outside a house.

I walked past a couple of interesting letterboxes today,  I liked the one that was painted with seals and thought the large tree stump letterbox made good use of an old stump. 

Distance walked:  7.6 km         Walking time  1 hr 28 mins    

Total distance: 999.4  km          Total walking  186 hr 50 mins