Walktober: Sunday stroll in Makara

I was browsing some blogs I follow, and was intrigued by a post that A Day In The Life had published called Walktober.  Breezes at Dawn is hosting what she calls a ‘group walk’, in which bloggers write a post about a walk they have done, which will then be gathered together in one big post here.  The event is taking place between 15 and 23 October.  As we had just returned from a short walk after lunch, the timing seemed just right for a post today.

Regular readers of this blog will know that one of the places we go to reasonably often is Makara Beach, about 16km north from Wellington.  There is a 6km loop walk from the beach, but as were not prepared for this, we did the gentle stroll from West Wind wind farm up to the World War 2 gun bunkers.  It was a glorious sunny afternoon, with hardly any wind – I don’t think I’ve every been there when it has been so still!

From the car park at West Wind, we walked up past the wind turbine known as B2 (see the featured image at the top of the post), the only one accessible to the public within the  complex.  The wind farm has been fully operational since September 2009 and has 62 turbines, and is supposed to be one of the best performing wind farms in the world – not surprising I guess given the strong winds that can blow up the Cook Strait.

We continued to walk up, stopping to admire the fantastic view over to the South Island, before heading up to the ruins of Fort Opau and the gun emplacements, which formed part of the defence of the country during World War 2.  The fort itself was built in 1941, and was operational from 1942 to 1944.

It really was just a short walk, but the views were fantastic, the sun was shining and we were home in time to do some pottering in the garden and enjoy a gorgeous spring Sunday.