Wandering boots that wander tour: Day 20 Wandering to Kaitaia

By the numbers

2 bus’

11058 steps

7.62kms

The morning started like any other as I made sure I had nearly everything packed before leaving for the bus. The weather was looking really nice and there did not seem to be any rain about so I would hopefully have a nice ride up the coast. The clothes that I had pulled off the line the day before were dry. I had my computer stuff to sort out and make sure I had all that I would need with me and gave me the opportunity to leave books behind that I no longer needed. Then came the goodbyes for another year as it was time to move on and have two happy grandparents who loved having my company even if it was for a short time.

I was dropped off at the Whangarei Hub in the Town Basin where the bus would arrive and I do wonder at times if these timetables are estimates only and the bus arrives around the time they are meant to. I was wondering if I could have trouble with the bus not waiting around in Kerikeri heading to Kaitaia. The bus turned up and at let us know that the other bus would wait for us.  I was happy to know that and there was the usual places that we passed that I had been to on this particular trip away. When we arrived in Paihia, we learnt that there would be a slight problem while in Kerikeri. We had to stop at the BP servo as the Christmas parade was on today. I never knew this would be on and it appeared on the day I would travel. Turn out what they do is drop us at the service station and the bus continues on to meet up with the other bus to transfer the bags so we didnt need to have them on us.  

I managed to have lunch at the servo while waiting for the bus that we were told would be 10 mins away. More like 20 mins later while listening to some tourists talking about walking the Te Araroa trail, although they were saying it had not really been fully established. I knew they were improving the track, but it had been around for some time. I was happy to listen in and not say anything at all. Once the mini bs turned up, I found out that we did not have internet on the bus. I was still happy to look out the window and catch a few things that were going past. Some of the places we went through were Kaeo, Mangonui, Coopers Beach, Taipa, Awanui and then Kaitaia. I did find another Mission station that had my interest even though I know nothing about it. I am sure one day I will end up at the Wesley Dale Mission Station. New Zealand seems to have quite a few of the spread out in the country. There are also many abandoned like places along the drive that are now part of the local farming buildings. I don’t know if this is something to do with the  far north in New Zealand. Two other places hold my interest and those are Kaeo for what looks to be a church and a place called The Mad Hatter Cafe. The other seems to be the seaside town of Mangonui with a few of the heritage walks listed on boards. This is how I know that I want to visit a town.

I got turned around when we arrived in Kaitaia as I was not really sure which street I should go down. I had to use the loo and found the info centre also has a museum and a cinema. Looking at a map and looking at the street were two different things and I was feeling a little lost to be honest. I shouldn’t have worried as I crossed the road and looked only to find the motel was right there in front of my eyes. The lady at the counter was very happy to see me and even offered me a jug of milk, when I told her I don’t drink it. At least she told me to turn the fridge on and I wanted to go for a walk before it got dark. The first thing I wanted to do was have a look at the museum until I couldn’t figure out where the entrance was. Turns out the museum was closed and I had actually missed the sliding door that gave the times it was open. Weekends meant it was closed, but it was not a loss at all as within the foyer of the information centre had a representation to the Gumdigging Dalmations. I was impressed as it wasn’t something I was looking for.

As you do when checking out new places I go wandering. I wanted to do the circuit so I knew where I am in town and to orientate myself so I knew where the basics were. It never occurred to me that things would be very far away. I was wondering where Maccas was located along with fast food places so that I could get a quick meal. I soon found there was actually not very much to see in Kaitaia itself. I think everyone used it to jump to the next place. Turns out the food places that were convenient were too far away and I wanted to get where I wanted on time. I didn’t know the town so much, but I wasn’t sure what would be open early. I had made the loop fining the Intercity bus location and also the war memorial that is supposedly the first one that is represented in Maori and English. The Bowling club was really pretty with its colours, but I knew before it got too late that I would need to sort food out. I found a small supermarket where I had breakfast sorted for the next two days. While I had sorted myself out and gotten a pork roast for dinner, but on the way back I became distracted by the bookshop where I found several on gum digging in the area. You wouldn’t think that I would leave that sort of book alone, would you? These are gold mines that I had been looking for. I had to return back to the motel to eat my meal and sort out the stuff for the fridge.

I honestly think anyone would go mad in the town if they had nothing to do and at least I know I have chosen the right place even though it is for sale. Tomorrow I get to visit a Gumdigger park and go on a tour to the cape, which will be nice.  

Wandering boots that wander tour: Day 19 Stationary in Whangarei

By the numbers

8 days in Whangarei

Nothing else recorded

 You cannot really have a travel blog going from Day 18 and then jumping to Day 20 without anyone wondering what happened in between.

The weather was meant to become really nasty today and was meant to stick around all weekend. It had gotten cloudy and I even put some washing out. I was keeping an eye on it in case the wind turned into rain and while having a coffee later with granny and Claude I was watching it get darker and then bolted outside to grab the clothes off the line as the rain came down. I leave for my next destination tomorrow of Kaitaia, which is north of Whangarei several hours.

I thought it would be good to have today s a rest day and to get some little bits of research done like sorting several things out for Waiheke island and to grab some records I am after for when I visit the National Archives in Auckland. Turns out Lewis Williams probate including will was online, but not indexed so I had to search the long way around. I am glad the National archives in New Zealand is doing something like this with the family search website. I am looking up the Waihi mining records for Claude as well when I get down there. Claude was telling me about his travels including showing me part of his diary of when he went in 1962 out towards Iran, Paris and Turkey. Amazing what you can find out about eventually. I will say this 8 day trip to Whangarei is actually the longest I have been here on a trip.

There are days that are needed to get some bits of research done and I think I have done some that I wanted to get done including a little bit of family history as well that will go into my vault of information.

Wandering boots that wander tour: Day 18 Wandering Ferns and car museums

By the numbers

1 museum

7,261 steps

5.03kms

I spent an hour or so going through the Auckland transport service website as I wanted to make sure I had done my research before I went to the city next week. I wanted the bus time table to get me to the national archives. It is the little things that improve trips. I had no idea what I was going to do for the day, but Claude and I soon sorted out where we were going to go. The night before I had found a map on Whangarei that included a Fernery called Botanica, which is near the library. I did have an idea that I could visit the post office to post some books home. The other place we nutted out was to visit the Packard museum in Maungatapere.

Before we went towards the fernery, I was dropped at the post office where I found the required bag and filled the paperwork. When the weight was heavier as in just over 2 kilos, which means even more paperwork to post off and attach. I was happy to have two kilograms less in my bag after last time I nearly had trouble on the plane being over 20 kilos. Once we left the post office and my package that was going to make its way home, hopefully before I arrive. We headed to the Fernery otherwise known as Botanica where we wandered through the area where there were ferns of all different kinds including cacti that lived there too. I don’t know anything about the building or ferns, but this place had been around for a very long time, I think around the 1970s. It was free for people to visit and enjoy the plants and they included a newspaper within the building. I cant really say much about ferns as I am no plant expert, but I think other family members would love these.

The next place we were going to go was Maungatapere, which is a short distance from Whangarei to the Packard and pioneer museum. I had never visited the museum and according to the website they had updated some lighting in one of the sheds. That and the museum was open today so it was all going to be good. I had once visited the small display they had while it was in the Town Basin in Whangarei, but they bought the collection back together. Once we had something to eat, it was time to visit and we had a crowd follow us in. Turns out they take people on tours of the buildings and we were joining the group that had arrived with us, which never bothered me especially since they would remember half the older vehicles. The Packard museum is all about the history of the Packard car especially in New Zealand from the early cars to the later ones in the 1970s. They do have other vehicles and parts of peoples lives, but everything revolves around the Packard. I wasn’t expecting the museum to be big, but they had several sheds. One of the Packards they could get 13 sheep inside the car and that stunt gained them a tank of fuel when they placed a bet with the servo attendant. They had a model T Ford and several others in one room. I did ask how they lit the lights if not by candles and the response was they used Kerosene and I was allowed to toot the horn on one. It is interesting when cars were once designed to have a driver, maybe a doorman and the owner in the back seat. Vases that had real flowers were included so you got a real smell and not the scents we have today. That was incredible.

It took us nearly two hours to go through the museum as they had steam engines, where they had chains at the base that were their steering mechanism unlike what we have today. A train that is one of four left in the country, which is the Dubs 0-4-0 Steam Engine according to their website. I couldnt remember the name of the train off hand. They had early Indians, Triumphs and Harleys. I thought I would be bored going through all the mechanical wonders. They even said the Packard engine was used in Spitires as one lot of engines by several other companies were produced during the way. I heard a story about the Scoby cars being exchanged for NZ butter from Russia. I thought this was interesting and maybe unsettling, but I did look it up and the story actually is true from the 1980s. One of the tractors I was looking at had an arrow on the front, which was a guide for the driver who was so far back that he needed to know which direction his wheel was in. Did I say I enjoyed the museum?

I was impressed as they pointed out cars that were used in Movies like Grease or was apparently used as a hearse for president Ford as they didn’t have a Ford or some such thing. There was even a jeep that was once used by the Queen during a tour in New Zealand. So much to see and they had cleared quite a bit in one of the sheds that a week or so before one o the guides could not move in certain spots. Claude I think was happy to wander through the displays and we ended up with the vehicles that were basically the end of the line for the Packard as they had bought out the Studebaker company, but those cars looked pretty cool too. Before leaving we spoke to the tour guides who gave us feedback forms. I said I was impressed and that they had a great museum on their hands. I learnt that they do custom tours if someone asks like they had one person spend an hour just with the motorbikes at one stage who was a collector. If people ask questions then the tour could end up longer than the 2 hours, which can be a good thing as it shows interest. I wasn’t expecting the tour, but we got one and I was happy just to be looking around as well.

It was soon time that we had left and while I wasn’t wanting to go elsewhere once we got back home, I met up with an old Friend of Granny’s, Betty who had come for a coffee. We chatted about where we had been and later on I was taken to the shops where I wanted to walk back to the house to stretch my legs as I wanted a walk. I did stalk the shop assistants around the dairy section of the local supermarket. I was happy with my second last day in Whangarei and am looking at the weather that maybe coming across as a little wet. Hopefully that is not the case.

Links

Packard and Pioneer museum

http://packardandpioneer.co.nz/home

Butter for car

http://www.hoonable.com/butter-for-cars-how-the-lada-came-to-new-zealand/

Botanica

http://www.gardenstovisit.co.nz/public-gardens/botanica-whangarei.aspx

Wandering boots that wander tour: Day 17 Day in the cemetery

By the numbers

1 cemetery

4.32km

6,210 steps

At first I was not sure what I was going to do today once I woke up, but being in Whangarei has been the relaxing part of the trip so far and you never know the day could have been pretty easy. I learnt that I would be visiting the cemetery at Maunu as several family members happen to be there.

Once I sorted myself out and was ready to leave, Claude drove out to the Maunu cemetery in Whangarei as the plan was to check on my great grandparents grave. Here was my other grandparents I wanted to have a look at since I knew the grandmother had passed on earlier this year and I wanted to see if she had been placed with her husband down within the ashes plot, I had been there last around 2008, which says how long I was down that part of the cemetery. Claude and I found the Lissington plot pretty quickly as we were going to lean the growth off. I used a paint scraper, while not the official tool to use but this wasn’t something like a historic grave. The moss did move pretty well and later on we were suggested the use of bleach to get the grime out where the name cavities were. After placing fresh flowers, we sought the advice from several workers as we wanted to talk to the operators about an issue to do with burials. I was fascinated as these guys were headstone / stone masonry type people and they were lifting a headstone onto the back of their truck maybe to include more words. They actually helped to arrange with the caretaker or an appointment since he wasn’t in the area in an hour or so.

After chatting to the workers, we were looking for several other headstones that I was generous enough to turn my data on for the Whangarei Cemetery search. We were in the correct area, but had to look at nearly every headstone for the Alexander grave. I couldn’t see it, but Claude did find it. We hunted down several other people in the family. It was then the day was starting to heat up a little bit and I was feeling hot. I wanted to find Jim Watson’s ash berm as I had wanted to know if Marjorie had been placed with him. Since it had been around 2008 that I had last been there, I couldn’t quite remember exactly where he was and it was annoying. Turns out Berm D was a little further down than what we had thought and it was Claude who found him. I would have likely missed him as I was pretty sure the last time I had seen it the stone had been bright and cheery. It wasn’t this time around and no additions to the ash berm. It was by this time that we could visit the cartakers office and soon found we could use existing graves for ash internments and would be cheaper. You could after playing tetris place around 24 lots of ashes onto the one plot. I found this to be interesting.

I wanted to do two things after leaving the cemetery other than having lunch. I wanted to visit Kmart where I would buy two new pairs of shorts as the pair I have with me has several holes in them and need replacing and I got a shirt for good measure. Sure an extra pair of clothes, but this will sort me out while I travel on the rest of my trip. I found the lady at the checkout to be pleasant and that the Christmas rush had already started. I thought it strange that there were no CDs or DVD in the Kmart store in NZ.  The last thing I wanted was to visit Reyburn House as they had a book on the Hokianga that I wanted, but I also wanted to see if they had any other books on the local area. Last time I bought a book on the Hokianga it had been the last one in print at the time. Funny how I can seem to find hard to find books, but those I dont lend to anyone at all. They may travel with me, but I will post them sometime soon. Once we got back home, Donna turned up to show us some one home movies that had been recorded onto digital as they were old ones that could have been from at least the 1960s if not earlier so that was a pretty good job to do so. Another type of family history preserving by saving old video recordings to save for future generations. All I seem to be doing is looking up old newspaper articles, but I think I find plenty of other things regardless. 

Link

Whangarei cemetery search

http://www.wdc.govt.nz/FacilitiesandRecreation/Cemeteries/Pages/CemeteryDatabaseSearch.aspx