Cousin Carwyn's Place

On our trip back to Whakatane from Hamilton, we visited Tarnya's cousin, Carwyn, and his fiance', Toni. We were treated to a tour of the expansive home and farm they have recently purchased. In addition to Kiwi vines, there are olive and avocado trees, a couple of black bulls, three beautiful sheep and several chickens. It's a lovely place!

Hamilton Gardens

Our marvelous host and hostess in Hamilton, Arthur and Margaret, treated us to a tour of the city highlighted by a leisurely stroll through the magnificent Hamilton Gardens. A visit to their website is well worth it Hamilton Gardens.

The Asian-inspired gardens were serene with bamboo groves, statuary, and reflecting pools. Arthur and Margaret's son, Brad, and daughter-in-law, Sam, were married in one of the pavilions in the Japanese section of these gardens.

The English gardens were next and featured cottage style border perennials and annuals. Inviting benches and charming archways were around every corner.

The American Modernist gardens had desert succulents and lots of specimen greenery and featured a large screenprint of Marilyn Monroe. My impression was that the Americans are defined by California!

The Indian Char Bagh Garden (traditional enclosed four part garden) spreads out from a chalk-colored pavilion. This type of garden is also known as the Universalist Garden because of its widespread use and symbolism of the universe itself.

The Italian Renaissance Gardens were breathtaking in their vivid color, mythological imagery, and elegant water features. The four of us unanimously voted these gardens our favorite of the day and decided that the table overlooking the gardens would be a most wonderful spot for a romantic picnic dinner.

The above gardens all belong to the "Paradise Collection" and from there we moved on to the "Productive Collection" which featured sustainable, kitchen, herb and medicinal gardens. The most interesting of these was the Te Parapara, a Maori garden that tells a story, highlights the culture, and demonstrates the traditions of Maori gardening within a cultural setting.

At the end of the tour, we all agreed that it would not be hard to spend an entire day in these gardens!

Kohi Point Walkway

Today we decided to explore Ohope Beach and the walkway that climbs up and over Kohi Point. The "other side" we were told, was the place to find exotic shells. We started at the west end of Ohope Beach where we found a healthy surf and lots of surfers out for the day.

The trail head starts with a stairway, straight up and over... we read later that you should have "average fitness" for this hike because of extended inclines.

Yes, there were definitely some extended inclines and MANY stairs (we stopped counting about halfway up at 150, so maybe 250-300 stairs each way? Not sure, but it seemed like at least that many. Here is an aerial shot from the Ohope Beach website (photography by Andrew Whyte) at http://www.ohopebeach.info/recreation-kohipoint.htm I'd like to say that we traversed the magnificent point of land in the foreground of this picture, but in fact, it was the small point of land between the two beaches on the left side of the photo as you follow the coastline.

As we went up, we were treated to some wonderful vistas of the beach we left behind.

At last we were at the crest, rounding the point and on our way down to the cove on the other side.

Not the tame, sandy beach we left behind, but a wild, lava-strewn stretch of shore with countless weathered shell bits and mounds of driftwood. In a word, fabulous!

We had the beach to ourselves except for a family of Oystercatchers. Not a bit shy, they scampered over the rocks for the entire time we were there, mom and dad finding little food bits for the kids. All in all, a very fine day.

First Look at Whakatane

Whakatane is said to be the site of the first landing of Polynesians to this island. On the east coast of the North Island, it is situated in the Bay of Plenty. On our first night, we were treated to a tour of Whakatane and a dinner picnic on a ridge high above and overlooking the coastline. In the narrow straits a statue of a woman stands atop a large rock symbolizing a legend of an incident occurring after the arrival of the Mataatua, a Polynesian voyaging canoe about 700 years ago. The name "Whakatane" is reputed to commemorate this incident. The men had gone ashore and the canoe began to drift. Wairaka, a chieftainess, said “Kia Whakatāne au i ahau” (“I will act like a man”), and commenced to paddle (which women were not allowed to do), and with the help of the other women saved the canoe.