Gisborne - Napier (2018-03-04)

The downside of the long bare-footed beach walk that I bragged about in my last post, is that the sand was hard and hot, and I ended up with a large blister on each heal.  To add insult to injury, we did a brisk early morning walk the next day, and I ended up with blisters on the blisters, so after I drained them I was out of action for a couple of days, while the skin hardened up a little.

By then, the weather had cooled off a little, with highs more mid-20s for our last week in Gisborne.  We had hoped to walk from Tologa Bay to Cook's Cove and also the Te Kuri Farm walkway, which although they are not long walks, have a lot of elevation gain.  We were saving these more strenuous hikes for cooler weather, and then, with my blistered feet, it looked like we would miss out on doing them both.

However on our last full day in Gisborne, Marlene convinced me that we should do the Te Kuri Farm Walkway.  The walk starts close to town, and is primarily on farmland, with a small forested section, but it is steep, going up (with very little shade), and also coming down (through the forest with lots of dry leaves to slip on).  It is however worth the climb, to get the great views across Gisborne and Poverty Bay, to Young Nick's Head, and the Mahia Peninsula beyond.

Poverty Bay from the Te Kuri Farm Walkway

 After two weeks in Gisborne, it was time to move on to Napier, but I am sure that we will be back, as we like the city and the lack of tourists.

Marlene cannot spend more than an hour in car without getting antsy, so enroute to Napier we stopped at Morere Hot Springs, to do a short forest walk.  We had planned to do the 800 metre Nikau Track, but the woman in the office convinced us that the 2.2 km Ridge Track would not take much more than an hour, so off we set.  Initially the track winds through a stand of Nikau Palms, before taking you up to a ridge, which you traverse before descending at the other end of the ridge, making a loop trail.  The Nikau Palm grows for about 45 years as a bush, and then forms a stem and continues growing as a tree.  It grows two fronds per year, which fall off a few years later, leaving a ring on the trunk, so you can tell the age of the tree by counting the rings and adding 45 - these palms have been around for a while.

Morere Hot Springs - Nikau Palms

Once we left the well-travelled Nikau Loop and started the ascent to the ridge, the trail became very overgrown and most of the steps had fallen apart or been washed away.  But we persevered and made it most of the way down, until Marlene tripped, fell, and knocked her head on a fallen branch.  She was scraped, bruised, a little concussed, and had a cut above her left eye.  Thankfully the branch missed her eye.  After lying and then sitting for a while, she was able to walk the remainder of the way down, where we used the first aid supplies at the office to clean up her wounds.  Hopefully the Department of Conservation (DOC) will give this track some attention in the near future.

With Marlene stabilized we set off again for Napier, with a short stop in Wairoa for cofee.

This year we are staying in Westshore, rather than right in the city of Napier.  Westshore is basically a gravel spit, which separates a low-lying wetland area from the ocean, so only a few metres above sea level (at high tide).  Our accomodation is the bottom floor of a two-storey house, which is over the road from the walking / biking trail and the beach.  We look directly out at the ocean, with Port Ahuriri and Bluff Hill off to our right, and the Mahia Peninsula off to the left.  

View from our Napier home, with Ovation of the Seas in the port beyond

My cousins, Maureen and Denzil, have graciously loaned us their bikes again this year, and our hosts have also made a bike available, which has been great, as my sister Tricia has been visiting us for 10 days.  Our daily routine has been a bike-ride early in the morning before the winds come up, then a walk into Port Ahuriri or a bus ride into Napier, which we catch on the street behind us, after taking a shortcut through the local elementary school.

Denzil told us that if the tsunami warning (on the school next door) sounds, we have 4 minutes to get to higher ground.  We timed ourselves, and if we have the bikes at the ready, we can just make the hill in 4 minutes.  Which was fine until Denzil told us that the only bridge will probably not survive an earthquake, so now we are considering swimming lessons.  But the last big earthquake in Napier was in 1931, so we are hoping that the next one will hold off  for a few more weeks.

Mural in Port Ahuriri

Port Ahuriri is a great little village, with several excellent cafes, most of which we have tried, and is an easy 15 minute walk from our home.  It even has a small movie theatre, so we took in a matinee of "Finding My Feet", a predictable but thoroughly enjoyable British film.

Today was the Lindisfarne College gala day, and as Maureen and Denzil have two great nephews at the school, it was a must-see event.  We arrived at opening time (9 am) and already all the close parking was taken, but thankfully the neighbouring Hastings Girls College was offering parking in their school grounds for a gold coin donation.  So $2 later we were parked and off to the gala.  This annual event is very well attended and offers everything from fresh fruit and veges to Christmas decorations, so the crowd was massive.  We walked around all of the stalls, and then sat with a tea and treat under an umbrella to watch performances by the various school bands and some highland dancing (not by the Lindisfarne boys).  It is hard to beat tea for $2, Louise Cake for $1 and a steak sandwich for $5.

Lindisfarne College Gala Day

We have one more day with Tricia, and have planned lunch at the Mission Estate Winery tomorrow with Maureen and Denzil, but more on that next time.