The Shortest One I’ve Ever Seen

It rained during the night.  We woke up to clouds.  29 days no bad weather, we thought, well, this is it.  Au contraire.  Cloudy, yes, windy, yes, but it warmed up, t-shirt was sufficient, and by late afternoon it was sunny, clear and 20.

 

For the morning we did a short forest walk on the perimeter of Gisborne called Gray’s Reserve.  I didn’t want a huge day of driving so, while we probably should have made more of an effort, I felt like staying local.  First walk was a forest reserve, a remaining example of what the whole peninsula would have looked like X centuries ago before it was cleared for agriculture.

The foliage was interesting, and massive, but it was the diversity of bird life which was most astonishing.  We’ve tried to capture the weird cacophony of it all, in a video; not sure it was successful.

After running some errands, and “antiquing” we wound up back at the AirBnB for a light lunch. 

For the afternoon we set out to walk from “town” along the Turanganui River (see note below on size, it’s very, very small size) to the mouth at the port, which is Poverty Bay (so-called because it offered nothing Cook wanted) and then along the local beaches on the bay, Sponge Bay, Waikanae, and Midway.

 

The river path, paved, is quite formal.  As you hit the beach there is a boardwalk, old-fashioned wood boardwalk, then when that ends its grassy dunes or the beach proper.

We passed an old fire engine labelled Los Angeles Fire Department.  I asked one of the crew whether it was a gift.  He said yes, it was brought down to Auckland in 1990 for the World Firefighters Games (who knew?), and it just stayed on.  I said that’s how a lot of people feel after visiting New Zealand, a desire to stay on.  The brigade was a friendly lot, although they tended toward “very volunteer” if you know what I mean, particularly the fellow with one leg.

 

All told the loop walk was about two plus hours.  Not the most scenic excursion this holiday, but I was grateful not to be driving.  On the way to the beaches we had passed a young man in gray hoody drinking a beer.  On the way back, his clothes were all in a pile; neat, neatly folded, the jeans, the shirt, the hoody.  His shoes placed tidily next to the pile of clothing.  But he was nowhere to be seen.  Not swimming in the river, nowhere.  So the big question is: Did he swim and drown?  Swim away?  Or walk into town stark naked?

 

OK: Geography fun (or not so fun) fact.  The Turanganui River is the shortest river in New Zealand.  1200 meters. River-wise, pretty short wouldn’t you say?   (It’s a river at the confluence of two other longer rivers.) It’s JUST long enough for the 1200 m freestyle. Yesterday we went to a HUGE wharf, The Biggest One I’ve Ever Seen.  Today we walked a RIDICULOUSLY SMALL river, The Shortest One I’ve Ever Seen.  So much diversity.  We are reeling.  Call the Donald.

Late afternoon we took our final walk on Wanui Beach.  How incredible to have a beautiful beach on your doorstep.  A few dog walkers but not much else going on.

For dinner we went “into town” to a place called Crawford Kitchen where the small plates menu was superb.  And that was about it.  Not a big blog day but a wonderful day on holiday.