By the numbers
3.21kms
4,653 steps
3 kilos book postage
3 cemeteries
The day was a little chilly, but the skies were clear for
the time being. The bed was also comfortable and I could stay in there for a
long time as I was also really warm under the covers. Granny was going over to
respite and both Claude and I were going to head out once we got going. I was
happy to go for a ride as there had been a cemetery I had found on the map that
I would have liked to visit. I had accidentally came across it when I was
looking for the Mission Ground cemetery that I had happened to gotten lost
looking for. Wrong street and al that. I had to post some books home so that my
bag would not weigh so much when I am trekking to the hostel in Auckland from
the bus stop under the casino.
After dropping granny off we headed to the Mission Ground
Cemetery on Rust Street. So good being in a car to get to places instead of
walking. The Mission Ground Cemetery was one I had been to before a while back.
The headstones had been removed and the graves were still under the ground.
There was a monument to those who had been removed and the only people to still
have a proper grave were the Rust’s who were near the entrance to the Quarry
Arts and craft place. If I had walked past the library yesterday, I would have
found the cemetery. I think I need to take my own advice sometimes and make
sure I have my map up. There was another cemetery that we were heading to and
that was the Kioreroa cemetery just before you headed into the main part of
Whangarei. I still don’t know how I have missed this place in all the years I
have been visiting Whangarei. It had been opened around 1881 and by the 1930s
was not looking like its former glory being over grown, cattle grazing and
trees growing tell. The council in the1960s apparently took away many of the
headstones, although the cemetery now has big concrete berms with peoples names
stuck to them. The rest of the cemetery has a mix of old graves that are
decayed and a pile of rubble behind the sign, which I assume was an attempt to
clean the cemetery out. Claude had to park in the Harvey Norman car park as it wasn’t
safe to park on the side of the road, nor any place you could drive and park. I
wouldn’t want to try with the traffic on the main road.
On the way back into town, Claude and I had to stop as I had
to do some posting. I had a pile of books that I wanted to post home or else I
might get into trouble on the way home, again. Bags that are a little heavy
might get me into trouble and I would not want to leave books behind especially
when they could become very useful through my studies. I believe they would be,
but you never actually know. I sorted out the postages as I sent them as two,
but I was told it would have been slightly cheaper to post as one. I had been
worried if I put the value up of the books or their true vale then I might have
to pay more. Not that I was going to ask as then the ladies might smell a rat.
The two packages can race each other home to see if they arrive on the same day.
Once I returned back to the car as Claude was happy to wait, I shouted him a
coffee at a cafe. At lest they did not ask me if I wanted milk with my long
black like the day before. I was asked if I would be happy to go out to Onerahi
and to look at the cemetery there too as Claude had relatives buried there. I
was happy to do so and we headed out that way. Onerahi has a sign that is on
the side of the hill and two of the letters had actually fallen down. I do not
know if they are trying to be like Wellington or not. Still it was a great
drive and the weather had turned a touch cold at that point.
Once we had stopped outside the Onerahi Cemetery, which is
right across the road from a school as I soon found out and the cemetery was
next door to a kindy funnily enough. The clouds decided they wanted to start
letting some water go and I was hoping it would not start pouring on us as we
opened the doors. I do not know much about the Onerahi cemetery other than it
is still in use, but not very big. Claude found who he was looking for and I
took a wander through and found most of the cemetery was pretty recent and I
knew we were near the airport as I could hear the planes, well one plane
actually. I don’t know if it was taking off or landing. I didn’t spend much
time within the cemetery, but once I rejoined Claude we went for a drive around
Onerahi. There are some seriously narrow roads down that way along the water
front, although there used to be a trainline down to the wharf, so that could
be part of the reason for the narrow roads.
We headed back after this and I actually got to sit back and
look at some information for the next part of my trip. I will be in Auckland in
a matter of days so needed to look up and order some records from the National
Archives so that they would be waiting for my arrival when I appear there. Plus
I had forgotten, which bus I had to catch to get to the archives. It was
actually a train and a bus. Little things like that. Granny was picked up and
we had our tea picked up too, although other than being in the car for a little
bit, we had not really gone that far at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment