As posted earlier I did a rather interesting wander around the area this morning.
I started at Ohope Beach and wandered along to foreshore to West End. “The day was fine, a light breeze blew”… and if anyone can tell me where that came from, there is a chocolate fish for them.
From the bus this morning I could see White Island in the distance with a puff of smoke/cloud around it. Look closely at the first picture above, with the paddle boarder.
From there it was a walk up some stairs and around to Otarawairere Bay.
On the way….
The tui was drinking at the waterfall on the side of the track. I managed to get quite close before it flew off.
So down to the bay which was lovely.
They do say that you need to be at least an hour away from high tide to get through to the stairs at the end of the bay, I was just there …
From there it was a climb and a half up to the summit of Kohi Point, around the corner and down towards Whakatane. The views in places were spectacular!
Going down towards town I managed to get a very unusual picture..
I have finally worked out how to do a time delay, put the camera at the top of a set of stairs and raced to the bottom.
So a bit of a wander through the lovely town of Whakatane, it has some interesting things including the worlds first vertigraph. It is a set of tiles set in the risers of the stairs, creating a picture when viewed from below.
Looks wonderful.
So a wander further revealed a strange rock….
and the neat things just kept coming
It was lovely to see, then I took a turn back into the bush and low and behold more of those bloody wooden things….
Still it was getting me where I needed to be and I had all day to do this, so slow and steady and up we went.
I paused for a break and a sandwich and was pleasantly surprised by a flock of Californian Quail, one of whom joined me for my crusts.
From there it was more bush then suddenly around the corner and…
So about 20 mins of wandering along through farmland and around pines and I then headed back bush and came across this and I thought of my sister’s collection of strange dunnies
This had been carved out of a fallen tree that had been across the track. Including the loo roll holder on the side!
From there it was more up and down and then a final push out back to Ohope Beach. The entrance that end is just lovely!
and in the opposite direction…
…my starting point.
So 17km and 4 1/2 hours from start to finish. I was quite pleased with myself.
So to sort out the last of Matata….and getting to Ohope. Hey who said this had to be in order…
I had a lovely few days there, fishing and sorting out the woes of the world with Keith Levy, who is also full time in his bus, “The Flying Tortoise”. We got on well and had some great discussions about politics, budgeting and life in general. Keith lives by the philosophies of Henry David Thoreau, Zen Buddhism and the Japanese Wabi-Sabi. He is a fascinating man and gave me a great list of places to pause at on my journey around the Cape.
Keith has written a lovely book called “How To Live Well On A Small Income”. It cost $10 BUT the $10 has to be given to someone who may need it. Email him if you are interested in a copy. keith@keithlevy.com
So very little fish was caught but a large number of the worlds woes were fixed as we sat, ate anzac bikkies and drank coffee and green tea, watching our surfcasting rods do nothing. Fun though.
So I moved through Edgecome, where they have a great dump station and in Whakatane I filled up the tank and pantry ready for the push east. I will be moving up the beach tomorrow to either the Port Ohope boat ramp or the Maraetotora Reserve, depending on who is there and what they are like.
I hope to get the kayak in the water at some point this weekend.
Hope this finds everyone travelling well.
My thoughts are with my niece at this time of the year as it is the anniversary of her husband’s death and one of the reasons why The Fredrock Cafe has it’s name.
(((((((HUGE HUGS))))))) for my niece and her darling children.
Orange is her favourite colour!
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