Farewell Wellington

The day has arrived, we fly home this afternoon. 

Wellington has not turned on its best weather for visitors this past week, even though there were royal visitors, so it has not been too different to Vancouver Island, which will perhaps ease our transition back into the northern hemisphere. 

Speaking of royals, Wills, Kate and George were in New Zealand this week, but we did not see them, or any evidence of them, apart from the incessant media coverage. Perhaps we move in different circles?

We have had our last visit with Noeline, our last date scone at Revive Cafe, our last movie at Lighthouse Theatre (we saw Like Father Like Son last night), and my last visit to the Archives, so all that remains is to pack our bags, bid farewell to Margaret and Tricia, and head to the airport. :-(

But we are looking forward to Spring, to seeing our Canadian family and friends, and to being in our own space for a while. 3 months away is a long time. 

Haere Ra

Palmerston North, Levin and Wellington

Marlene had found us a motel very close to the centre of Palmerston North, so we were able to walk into town.  We stayed two nights as although the main focus was to visit my Auntie Bridie again, I also wanted to have some research time at the local library, which has an excellent set of historical resources.

 

Auntie Bridie was in good spirits, having really enjoyed a picnic in a local park to celebrate her 93rd birthday at the weekend, but for the first time she mentioned that she has had a good life and is ready to meet her maker.  It really felt like she was saying her goodbyes.  Hopefully that will not be the case and we will be able to enjoy some time with her again next year.

 

To break up the drive back to Wellington, we overnighted in Levin, a small town about halfway between Palmerston North and Wellington, which has no particular claim to fame.

 

While in Levin, we decided to have a walk at Hokio Beach, and ended up walking all the way to Waiterere Beach and back, a total of about 10 Km.  This whole stretch of coast is really one long beach, broken up only by the occasional river or stream, so a great place for a long flat walk.

 

 

 

You can legally drive on the beaches in New Zealand, although rental car insurance generally does not cover any resulting mishaps. It was interesting to see a speed limit sign in the middle of a windswept beach, a sign that was being largely ignored by the vehicles that we saw.

 

 







 As we walked, I was telling Marlene that as a child we used to play on the wreck of the ship "Hydrabad" which ran aground on this coast in 1878, during a hurricane-strength storm.  50 years ago the wreck could be reached at low tide, so a great adventure for a young lad.  The Hydrabad was steel-hulled, and she was visible for a long time, but time and tide have now removed all sign of her, and the only evidence of the event is a post marking the spot where the ship ran aground.

 

 

 We arrived back in Wellington around 4 PM on Thursday, with just over a week until we leave for home.  Margaret has a list of jobs for me to do, and she and Marlene have produced a calendar of events for the remaining week to ensure that we get one last visit with all the local relatives.  So this week will probably pass all too quickly, and without any blog postings.

Gisborne to Napier

On Saturday morning we said goodbye to our hosts, Peter and Glenda, and after a brief stop at the Farmers' Market for provisions, we left Gisborne for Napier.  It was a fairly wet drive, and we stopped only for coffee and a snack in Wairoa, arriving in Napier in the mid-afternoon.

 

My cousins, Denzil and Maureen, each have their own house in Napier.  Maureen lives in a small cottage, more than 100 years old, on the flat land near Ahuriri.  Houses this old are rare in Napier, as the city was devastated by a major earthquake in 1931.  Denzil lives in a larger house on Hospital Hill, so we stayed at Denzil's house.

 

After several hours of catching up on news and sharing which books to read, we headed out for dinner, to the restaurant at the Mission Winery.  It is a very popular restaurant, with great views of Napier, and excellent food.  I had the best meal that I have eaten in a long time....every mouthful was a flavour sensation.  I missed the main courses, but did manage to photograph the desserts before they were eaten.  Fantastic!

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday we visited the Hastings Farmers' Market, and were impressed by the variety of produce and potions.  One stall was selling several different types of figs, so we learned a lot about figs, sampled them all, and left with a selection of figs for later consumption.  The peppers and carrots on another stall were particularly colourful.

 

 

 

 

The balance of Sunday was spent sharing family history information, followed by dinner at a local Indian restaurant.  How decadent, eating out two nights in a row.

 

On Monday morning, before leaving town, we had coffee with Glenys, a woman who Marlene first met in Palmerston North in the late 70s when they both had young babies.  They have kept in touch through the years, and enjoy getting together in person when they are able.



 

Gisborne - Days 16-18

Our last three days in Gisborne were fairly low key. The forecast rain did not really get serious until Friday so we were able to get out for some town walks, relaxing at cafés and beach walks in the evening. 

The streets along the river have some really nice older houses, and the botanical gardens along the river is a nice quiet spot to walk. 

On Friday I spent a few hours in the Gisborne Library poring through newspapers on microfilm, looking for death notices,,,,it doesn't get much better than that. 

Saturday we headed to Napier to spend a few days with my cousins, Maureen and Denzil, but more on that to follow.,,,,

I had chuckle at a sign outside a shop in Gisborne - "If the shoe fits, buy the matching handbag".  Also saw a cute T-shirt slogan - "To fish or not to fish, what a stupid question".  

Gisborne - Days 11-15

After the walk to Cook's Cove on Thursday, I was not looking forward to a long walk on Friday, but the forecast was for sunny and 27 C at the weekend, so we opted to do a longer walk on Friday and then have two easier days in the heat of the weekend.  Marlene chose the Otoko Walkway, about 50 Km from Gisborne on the road to Opotiki.

 

The walk was along part of a disused railway track, which was relatively flat (no steep sections) except for the descent to the river at the far end.  It was identified as 5 Km / 2.5 hours one way, but although it was a little longer than 10 Km, we managed to do the round trip in less than 3 hours, with a stop for lunch.  The track was through open farmland most of the way, and then we descended through bush to the Waihuka River, where we had lunch.  We walked through fields with sheep and cattle, opened and closed gates, climbed fences and stiles, and even forded the river at one point.  The sheep just ran down the track in front of us, being too stupid to run off the track and let us pass, but we had one altercation with a large group of young male cattle who did not want to leave the water trough to let us through, but they eventually stampeded away after several verbal threats and much frantic waving of arms.  We were happy to see the car when were done, as the last 3 Km had no shade at all and we were melting.

 

On Saturday we hit the Farmers' Market to stock up on fruit and veges for the week and then I had a somewhat quiet day in our apartment, catching up on some genealogical research, while Marlene wandered the streets looking for deals.  In the evening we did a long beach walk, once the heat was out of the sun.

 

Sunday was another quiet day, with another beach walk in the evening.

 

It had cooled a little by Monday, so we headed back to Eastwood Hill Arboretum as Marlene wanted to walk the green (longest) trail.  This walk took us to the lowest point on the property, and from there to the highest point on the property....no shortage of steps or flights of stairs climbed today. 

 

 

After a light lunch, and discovering that we were the only visitors to the arboretum, we walked the blue trail, just to say that we had done it, before returning to Gisborne.

 

Our landlord has been very generous with fruit this past week, giving us grapes, figs and two lots of fejoias, all grown locally by his relatives.  The fejoia (fee-joe-a) is similar in size and composition to a kiwifruit, is very high in vitamin C and potassium, and has a very unique taste....not unpleasant, but unique.  We have been enjoying them on our breakfast cereal for several days now.

 

Today we walked down the river into town, had a coffee, and walked back to where we had parked the car.  From there, Marlene walked around town and back to the apartment, while I drove home and napped.  The sky was very dark in the southern sky this evening when we walked at the beach, perhaps a harbinger of things to come, as there is rain forecast for our last few days in Gisborne....yeah, right!