David Coxon finds a post-lockdown road trip is food for the soul

A fine day and an easing of the Covid lockdown was a perfect opportunity to extend our bubble and escape the house and the immediate neighbourhood.
 Still wanting to keep away from people as much as possible, we joined Ashley and Gillian for a picnic lunch on the wild and isolated southern Wairarapa coast at Ocean Beach.
To make as much of a loop run as possible, from Featherston we first headed towards Lake Ferry, turning off on the link road to head back towards the ranges. This route took us to the control gates between Lake Wairarapa and the Ruamahanga River, just before the river flows into Lake Onoke and on to the sea, where we stopped to enjoy the views while we had a late morning coffee
While Lake Wairarapa looks expansive and scenic, its visual beauty hides the fact that is in poor ecological shape. The main issue is that the lake originally was much more active with several rivers flowing into it, causing it to fill up and flood widely, often covering much of the lower Wairarapa.
To protect local farms and settlements rivers were diverted and the control gates installed to stop the lake flooding. Those were ‘just do it’ times, less ecologically enlightened times. The work has caused the lake to become very shallow. It is saturated with farming chemicals and nutrients and has very little water movement.
There is now a lot of work being done to revitalise the lake without significantly impacting on the local farming community.
After a refreshing and peaceful break, we continued on, west then south on Western Lake Rd. We bypassed to turnoff to Onoke Spit to climb up onto the plateau at Hinau Flats and down to cross the Wharepapa River. Here the road turned to gravel for the run along the Ocean Beach coast. There are a clusters of baches on the landward side of the road, and there were a few people fishing, however there was plenty of room for us to find some isolated beach and park up for lunch with a view. Sitting there enjoying lunch on a fine sunny afternoon while watching the waves roll in from Antarctica was the tonic we needed after the lockdown, and we probably spent longer than we should have just chilling out.
Since the road was in good condition, we decided to continue a few kilometres further around the coast to Corner Creek campsite. The campsite is just past the Corner Creek settlement and is very basic with a sheltered table, two toilets and room for about half a dozen small groups to camp. The road to Corner Creek is usually in good condition, in fact there was an MX5 sportscar in the car park when we arrived, but beyond here the road deteriorates and there is some ambiguity about how far it is a public road, and when it becomes part of Wharekauhau station. Although it is usually unlocked, I tend to consider the first gate as the limit of the tour without arranging access with the station, especially since I know from my 4WD club’s relationship with the landowners that they have a lot of trouble with hoons doing damage and dumping rubbish.
We spent quite a while around Corner Creek, just enjoying the view and chatting with some of the locals. While not productive in the touring sense, there was a feel about the area that we just did not want to leave.
Finally, however, we decided it was time to start the return trip, with a visit to Onoke Spit as our next destination. Of course, the scenery is always different on the return trip, and we ended up stopping for photos across the plateau and southern Wairarapa before turning off for the short run to the base of the spit. Just at the start of the spit, there is a small car park and a walking track across a footbridge over a small creek and onto the spit proper. There is also a ford through the creek, that is usually only ankle deep.  This time, however, it looked a bit more serious. I took it slowly and carefully, and when the bonnet started to slip under the water, I was told in no uncertain terms not to try it. Wise advice.
We enjoyed a good walk across the spit for more isolated views of the south coast then realised that the sun was getting lower, meaning our planned afternoon coffee at a picnic area on the edge of Lake Wairarapa would be in shadow. We opted for coffee before leaving, meeting a fellow traveller (who also decided not to risk the crossing) and a local running a commercial quad bike tour, who took his party through the shallow crossing at the far side of the car park. Local knowledge is everything.
With the sun rapidly descending we took the easy run back up the western side of lakes Onoke and Wairarapa, reaching Featherston in good time for a run back home before it got dark.
While not an adventure-laden day, this was a much needed escape that showed that well-chosen trips closer to home can be just as scenic, enjoyable and memorable as more distant adventures.