There's a new walkway and cycleway alongside the Hutt Road now. Well, alongside the railway alongside the Hutt Road, really. After many months (years) of anticipation, cycling from Petone into Wellington has been upgraded from a 1.5m wide "lane" painted beside two very busy lanes of motorway, to now two 3m wide lanes of smooth purpose-built cycleway (and a bit more for pedestrians). With plenty of mini-parks to stop at, read the plaques, and admire the view before continuing on.
Heather and I decided to head over to see this marvel for ourselves on a Monday morning. It was busy. Many people seeming to arrive with bikes attached to the back of their car and wanting to park in the carpark nearest the start of the route, which seems a little mad if they are just going to get on their bikes and cycle the route - a few hundred metres further along the Petone foreshore there was plenty of parking, and there's a perfectly good cycleway along that stretch as well, even if it isn't brand new.
Ah well. We enjoyed our walk in the sun to "Ngā Ūranga" where we caught the train back to Petone,, and had a nice lunch before heading home. The weather has been so amazingly settled this month, following on from last month's massive storms, so it is nice to get out for a gentle walk, rather than those "good walk, spoiled" ones I do a couple of times a week.
