Travel Blog

Back to Tawharanui today in what will probably be our last visit.

The forecast was for cloudy with showers, possibly heavy, developing in the afternoon. In spite of that, we made our sandwiches, packed our binoculars and raincoats, and headed out. And, boy, did we get lucky!

We decided not to walk any of the tracks over the fields. We got to the first gate, saw the mud that was 6 inches deep with water sitting in the sheep footprints and thought, "Unh, unh". So back we went to the trail along the creek, with its lovely jungley forest full of palms and birds. It was full of life, including little kids! It's school holidays right now, and, bless them, parents are bringing their children to these wonderful places to experience nature at its best.

We segued down to the beach where we sat in the warm sun, ditched the bottoms of our trousers, and lunched by the turquoise ocean. Then we walked the long, flat, clean sand beach to an access at the far end. Hiked back along the dune trail in a totally different ecosystem. Then, as a final fling, took the trail around the marsh. All in bright, warm sunshine, but with an eye to the approaching weather coming in from the east.

Stopped for gelato again. (How could we resist, knowing that this is probably our last chance before we leave?) Back into the car, heading home when, whammo, the skies opened and we could barely see across the narrow valley for rain. How's that for timing? The gods were certainly smiling upon us today!

Macrocarpas above the beach at Tawharanui

TODAY'S TIDBIT

Stopped at the veggie place on the way home to pick up some carrots and potatoes and gluten-free bread. The carrots here are big and fat, but crispy and sweet, like the ones from China, but they're grown locally. And beets ("beet root") cost the same per kilo as parsnips!