OK, there is no such thing as the Foxton Cycleway, but there should be. It is a very nice ride between Foxton and Foxton Beach and there is an off-road sealed bike path in existence for the kids to use to get to school between the towns.
So if I got to rule the world, or at least befriended someone in the Horowhenua Council, I’d recommend that a few signs were made up that declared a route from Foxton town to Foxton Beach. This wouldn’t be part of the National Cycleway, but it would be a marked spur off of it. Once you reach Foxton Beach there isn’t much to do, except do some bird watching on the Manawatu estuary, and turn back around, except it is a mighty fine beach ride up to Himatangi Beach.
My preferred route for the National Cycleway would be further east and head from Levin to Palmerston North, and it would be great if the tops of the levee banks on the Manawatu were used for this spur cycleway to link the National Cycleway and head to Foxton, but I haven’t investigated that. All I did was ride from the windmill in Foxton town to the beach (which is the bit I am recommending as the Foxton Cycleway) and then I went up the beach to Himatangi and came back in a circle on a country road.
Thanks to Google Maps, here’s the proposed route for the cycleway. It needs no infrastructure, just a few signs.
The Foxton Metropolis (start of my ride):
The simple cycleway from Foxton to Foxton Beach:
The new paths on top of the mounds near the estuary:
The end of the Foxton Cycleway (although this could be the Himatangi end, I can’t remember):
and it’s possible to keep on going northwards towards Himatangi Beach:
and it was one of those nice new green zeitgeist moments when I, on a pedal electric bicycle, waved hello to someone on a wind driven skateboard coming the other way.
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