14 February 2020
Party: Mark, Me
At late notice, my parents offered to take Spike for a weekend to give Mark and I some time to chill out. 
So while they collected him from after school care, we took the train to Porirua together to collect our car, before joining Friday night rush hour traffic to Pukerua Bay, where we parked again to jump on another train to Paekakariki.
The wait at the Beach Road Deli for pizza was about half an hour, but we decided it was worth it, and grabbed a seat in the shade outside to wait, where we enjoyed watching traffic and trains go past.
About 7pm, we finished dinner and were finally ready to start walking. It was gloriously warm, and we were walking in to the sunshine. The best thing about walking at this time of day was that we saw literally no one else the whole time. It was just us, a chance to chat and be together, and a small flock of sheep who kept us entertained.
The views were beautiful, and we got most of the way south towards our car before it got dark enough that we needed to get out our head torches. The experience of 
walking in the dark with just us, on a track above the road, was different and fun for sure. That said, it was nice to get to the more solid footpath alongside the train track coming in to the old Muri station, and to have some streetlights.
walking in the dark with just us, on a track above the road, was different and fun for sure. That said, it was nice to get to the more solid footpath alongside the train track coming in to the old Muri station, and to have some streetlights.We were just about clear of the railway tracks at the south end of Muri Station, when a freight train came barrelling up the hill and past us. HOLY WOW was it loud, that close to a pair of engines hauling a lot of freight up that large hill. And there were houses literally 10m away from the track at that location.
