With yet another warm, sunny Saturday in the forecast, we decided to go back to Pegasus Bay north of Christchurch to explore the trail a little further north up the coast.
This time we started in the town of Waikuku Beach and headed south through the pine forests. We made good progress on the easy track that ran parallel to the coast just behind the dunes.
After a while the pine forest gave way to mashes, we had great views across to the Southern Alps in the distance. We spent a while watching a swan drifting around and eating before continuing on to the small seaside hamlet of Woodend Beach .
The pine forest gave way to dunes as the track opened out onto the beach. We headed down to the shore to find a good place for a picnic.
Luckily this beach has a lot of driftwood and we were able to find a comfortable spot in the sun to enjoy our lunch whilst watching a couple of surfers.
After lunch we started to head back north back towards where we started in Waikuku Beach. Pegasus Bay is around 55 kilometres long and the gentle curve of the bay makes it hard to gauge how far you have walked.
It was almost high tide as we walked along the beach, making the view quite different from last week. Not to mentioned that the sand was a lot softer making it quite hard work at times, but having the beach to ourselves more than made up for it!