Waterfalls, Gardens, Beaches! (Jan 21)

We are continuing to explore the Whangarei area.  On Tuesday, we stayed close to home, still walking our loop in the am – we are becoming regulars!  My sister, Helen, came over for lunch – this was her trip into the big city (Whangarei population: 98,000) from her farm about an hour away.  She took advantage of Jim’s tech savvy and we went to Noel Leeming, the electronics store, to buy her a new laptop.  We hit the jackpot with the salesperson and Jim then set it up for her.  He loves doing this!

Everywhere we go, we use the NZ Covid Tracker App on our phones to record out visits, so if there were ever a community incidence of Covid, they could contact us.  Every merchant and public space has a QR code to scan.  There is discussion in the press here right now that people have become complacent and are not using it enough.  There is talk about how to gamify the app to encourage participation.  We are fully on-board!

Monday was a fish and chips night.  Stumpy’s Takeaways is walking distance from our house.  Eating fish (mine hoki, Jim’s snapper) and chips out of paper is one of the things I miss.  Fish and chips must be so hot that they practically burn your mouth.  You really don’t need plates, but Jim insisted. 

Tuesday I checked out The Bach Community Tapestry project https://thebachcommunitytapestry.blogspot.com/2020/10/spring-2020-update.html?fbclid=IwAR3Rk1Z6KHtsmaOh9cSGdW6pB6iGjfNYVGQ9T7sag4s1_uLEpg1FopAxDA0  If there is time, at the end of our visit, I would like to sign up to help with this. 

We visited Whangarei falls – a nice park with a 26 meter waterfall and a short walking path. We were quite taken with the 51 trees that the people of Whangarei had planted in solidarity with the people who died in the Christchurch Mosque terrorist attack. 

Today, we arose early to watch the inauguration of President Biden and VP Harris.  Such a moment!  Amanda Gorman’s poem took our breath away.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z90PMOedR3Y

Later we explored the Quarry Gardens – an old stone quarry that has been repurposed into lovely gardens.  The Quail Café provided an excellent lunch – local avocado smash on kumara (sweet potato, also local) sourdough.  (Hey, and Jim had a caramelized onion sausage roll.  Also excellent.)

Then we drove up to the Tutukaka coast, stopping at Ngunguru, Kowharewa – a flat pebble beach, Matapouri with a sheltered sandy estuary.  We didn’t quite time the tides right for a walk there.  But we did walk at Whale Bay, a secluded beach with white sand and a forest-fringed beach. The water is crystal clear.  Our last stop was Woolleys Bay, a lovely white sand beach.  The area is beautiful, with beach coves tucked away almost everywhere.

On the way back, we encountered a car accident.  A minivan appeared to have hit another vehicle.  Neighbours were out along the road motioning to drivers to slow down while other neighbours were sweeping up the glass and debris from the road.  Only when we were quite a distance from the site, did we see the ambulance, police car, and fire engine speeding to the accident.