Day 5 Whirlwind walkathon in Whangarei

Day 5 Whirlwind walkathon in Whangarei

The day started off pretty early for me as I decided to wake up at 7.30 in the morning. The weather out the window looked like it was going to rain and I wasn’t sure what sort of day it would be like when I had my feet on the ground, but I thought having plenty of water with me hoping I wouldn’t be too cold, but I had my brolly and rain coat with me in my bag and no map as I didn’t think it would be needed at all.

Once I was dropped off I started at the Hatea River Walk where it was around an hour from the other end into the city centre. That wasn’t my plan to hit an easy walk as I wanted to head towards the top of Parihaka, where there is a war memorial at the lookout. I don’t know what it is like as I have never been there before. I could have been driven up, but that would have been too easy. There were several tracks that do up the hill too. I did go up the Hokianga track, where it joined up with the Dobbie track near the summit. What I was interested in was the pa site that was located there. I did wander the track signposted for the pa site, but unsure what I was actually meant to look at. I did get stuck in several spider webs. On my way up I had seen Elvis going down while I was huffing and puffing though I didn’t get a picture. That is just my word to go on. Once I had wandered the pa site I went back down the path towards Muir Park bridge as I was wondering what that was all about. I should have read the map before going as that would have told me about the paths. Down I went being over taken by several ladies on their way down the hill. It did seem different to see a few women and only several men in the whole area. I was happy that they all said hi to me as it seemed to be something about New Zealand.

Once I was at the bottom I headed towards the bridge taking pictures as I went. I didn’t see any sign posts telling me if I had to go up the hill or keep walking as I did think that I had to go further on for Parihaka. Once I had gotten to the Muir bridge, I did see another track going up called the Drummand track. At the time I was needing the call of nature and had to find a tree and as there were plenty of trees I had no problems answering that call. I was wondering where the signs for The Basin, which is a part of down town Whangarei. I decided to go up the hill and some random lady who had passed me once before made the comment about running up the track, while I was going turtle speed. While going turtle speed a father and son did pass me while I was exploring what I had thought was another track, but it wasn’t.  Near the top I did find something interesting. I found the Dobbie track had joined up with mine, so I could have wandered up an easier track instead of going back down and then going up on another difficult track. I found the war memorial and took pictures from the lookout. I decided to walk down to the car park that did go most of the way up to see if there was a map.

After wandering a little bit I found the only map around was actually a BMX map and that was not of any use to me at all and I had to jump a fence to even get to this location. The only other explanation I could explain was to go down a track called the Ross track that said slippery when wet. I was umming and Ahhing over going down that was and decided why not try it. Dont know where I will end up, but we will see what happens. After around an hour of slogging down the hill, I was happy to find the entrance, but I had the impression that I would join up with the other tracks at the bottom. Any whoo I followed the street I was on and popped out directly across the river from the town basin, which includes Rayburn House and Chapmans clocks. I went for a little wander and ended up at some BMX park, so turned around as I was looking for food. Into town I walked and found... you guessed it a pie shop called Jaspers and had a pie called Stockmans. I would have had one called Billy T, but that included cheese and I didn’t want cheese. I did go for a quick wander, but had no idea what I wanted to do, so sent a text to be picked up at Rayburn house. On the way back I went into a bookshop and found a book I will grab later as I have two in the series of Twisting Throttle by a guy called Mike Hyde and this one is motorcycling through New Zealand. I want it and will get it before leaving the country. Gangs of New Zealand might be interesting too and I did check the book stocks in Rayburn house as they had a book I couldn’t get anywhere else last year I was there.

Once Claude picked me up, he took me down towards the Port of Whangarei, but there wasn’t much there to see as there were boats, but nothing happening as it could have been the weekend. Before we went to the port we did see the new bridge going up an stayed to watch a yacht go under the bridge. The car then pointed towards Auckland where we then took a loop road that would take us to the town of Maungatapere. The turn off was missed, but we were able to turn around and take the right road. Claudes idea was to visit Poroti, where we could have a drink. I shouted the drinks, but at $6.50 they were not cheap. The tide was out in one brand and I did see a sign that was talking about gang stuff including sunnies being warn in the pub. I was served, but no one said anything about my sunnies at all. Claude and I did watch the Rugby game of Southland vs Otago. Southland won, but I don’t understand the all in brawl that is Rugby and it looks like something chaotic. I did mention to Claude there was one place for me to visit and that was Dagaville museum, but that might have to be left for another trip as there are other plans afoot, but that doesn’t worry me either as there are other walking tracks I want to try.