Cape Campbell
Date:
Grade: 2
Our first stop off the ferry was Marfells Beach DOC Camp, just out from Seddon and looking due north, where we found the start of a 4 hour walk to the Cape Campbell lighthouse, basically the bottom right corner of Cook Strait. Until 2016 it was a walking only track, but the big earthquake lifted the shore about 3m (as well as moving the entire cape 6m closer to Wellington!), and now it’s possible to drive along at low tide. Unfortunately that traffic is slowing down the recovery of the area and will probably be prevented soon, but we did it much quicker than walking, and with less impact than the cars on our bikes, which got a bloody good hose down at the end.
We had walked 2km down the other way in the morning to check out the jetty at the salt works. It lets water flow into the ponds which are below sea level and now you know far more about this area than you need to.
Max elevation: 9 m
Min elevation: -5 m
Total climbing: 97 m
Total descent: -94 m
Total time: 01:31:19