Middle Earth Tour Day 21: One bridge too far an aimless wander

Middle Earth Tour Day 21: One bridge too far an aimless wander

Today I was allowing myself to sleep in for a little bit and I ws wondering about the weather as the clouds had moved in to make like it was going to rain my day. I was planning on going on a short walk around the walking tracks at the base of Parihaka and then head off to the museum where there are kiwis and a moa too. I do know by now that plans don’t always go according to how you want them to go.

I was dropped off at one end of the Parihaka trail and I was going to walk along the base though last time I had been there I ended up walking up the mountain twice as I wanted to reach the summit. This time I was going around the tracks on the base. There were a few people uing the track and jogging along though I had my ipod on me and people still ended up scaring the crap out of me when they ran past. I wanted to see what it was like at one of the exits and that one was Mair Park. For that I had to cross the bridge and I was chased by ducks that were wanting to be fed as a lady had been feeding them before. I just stood there watching them and I do think they got the message that I had no food, but amongst them was a goose too. After a quick look around I had found the exit, but I wasn’t after that exit at all and headed back across the bridge to have an easy walk back towards the town centre. I was wanting o do the Town Basin walk along with the very new track that had opened up several months ago. It was called the Hatea loop Walkway. The track I was on finished pretty quickly and I was on the main street where I was going to begin the Hatea walk.

I knew some of the walking trail I had done the year before though I was walking on the opposite side of the Town Basin which is sort of like the entertainment hub of the area. It has the Chapman clock museum and several other places like Reyburn House. The walk take you past the skateboard and BMX track. The trail takes you over the new bridge that lifts up for yachts though the bridge actually has a name. Te Matau a Pohe or The fish hook of Pohe. Pohe is actually an island that was sacred to the local Maori as the only people who were allowed access to it were local Chiefs. Legend has it a slave girl was sacrificed there by being buried in soft mud and the tide comes in. Lovely what you find out on information boards that are around the area. I crossed the bridge and before me in its glory was the sports stadium and I crossed the road to visit. Somehow I walked through a random open gate to walk around the cricket grounds though I couldn’t exit from the pain entrance as it was padlocked. How do I explain I walked in through an open gate next to a treatment facility? Still it was a good look and I did see the workers doing their thing. No one even bothered to ask me what I was doing other than when I returned on my original path a truck driver waved to me.

Once I was back on the right path I headed to the next part an that was another bridge that opens up, but this time it was a full on foot bridge. I didn’t think there was enough water below for any boat to cross. The bridge has its own name too and was opened in 2014 and called Kotuitui Whitinga. The meaning is to interweave and connect with the land. The next object was some sort of boat and some more rock. Though this I found out was called a Waka and wave. It was all stone and had been there since 2006. I had never gotten that far before so had missed this design though once I came opposite the theatre I was able to see the information signs about the history to the local area. They were double sided as one side tells you the Maori history and the other side the European part with while settlement. I would love a book about the history of Whangarei. I followed the trail and ended up at the Town Basin area where I stopped for an ice cream from the fudge shop. I was thinking a coffee and an ice cream, but that would be simply too weird at the same time,

After the shops I wandered into the town centre looking for lunch. I remembered a pie shop from last time called Jesters. I went for a walk looking for a book shop that I had seen, but never walked into. The shop was a second hand bookstore called The Piggery. The shop had books all over the place and I couldn’t choose anything as I had no idea what I would have wanted. At least I found some interesting books, but I have no room for any of them. I decided that it was best time to get a head on to the museum and kiwi house. The problem was I had half hour to wait for the bus and I realised the museum shut at 4pm. This meant I would not have enough time to wander though everything as the next bus was at 2pm. At least the map showing the routes was really easy and simply explained. I did send a message o be picked up and then headed to where I was going to be picked up. When Claude did come we made the decision to pick up Don from the nursing home and go for a drive.

We went into the home and I got to see Don for the first time in a year. He was happy to see us and think he was wanting to go for a ride in the car too though there was another guy next to him that really wanted to come along too. He was the escape artist I had seen last time I was there who had been trying to get through a locked door. I chatted with one of the nurses about how nice a day it was and what I had done though I was hoping that I wouldn’t be left in the ward once I went to the loo. Luckily people do know we are not there. Once on the road we were heading to a far off pub at Poroti for a drive. It doesn’t mean we had no idea where we were at all, but we went in the direction that it was thought to be. Claude had an idea of where we were once we had reached mangatapere where the Packard car museum is. After we stopped at the pub and had a beer though it was a drafty pub and my second visit. After the beer we took Don back to the home and I was actually falling asleep in the back of the car. Once we got back to the house I thought I would lay down for a bit and an hour and half later I got up as I wasn’t expecting to sleep for that long. It was unusual for me to do something like that at all.