After Christmas is the time when many New Zealanders go to their home by the beach. The name for these is bach, but the vast majority o,f them these days are pretty impressive homes. The price of land is at a premium and many of the little old wooden shacks have been been pulled down and replaced with beautiful modern homes. This was particularly apparent at Whangamata, which has grown into a pretty substantial town. Whiritoa on the other hand had only one shop and retains some of that original character. Both places are lovely in different ways, but Whangamata is a real adventure playground for children and adults alike.
My cousin Janice and her husband Barry picked me up from Mary’s house and drove me out to their house at Whiritoa. It is purpose built to accommodate a number of family members and I was soon sitting on the deck and enjoying a cup of tea and more Kiwi home baking.
After morning tea we set of for the beach, which is a short walk from the house. The tide was well in so they decided to swim in the lagoon. This looked reasonably inviting to me and rather safer than the breakers on the main beach.
It was shallow enough to stand up in but still deep enough for a good swim or splash about. After the swim and a little sunbathe to dry off Barry asked me if I’d like to walk along the beach. About a third of the way along I suddenly exclaimed in delight “Dotterel” as the little birds scampered along the beach in front of us. I had seen them a number of years ago in a protected area, but never as close as this.
We headed back home for lunch and after a bit of a siesta Barry drove me up to Whangamata to stay with my cousin Howard and his wife Dianne. They had changed the old bach of their parents to a new purpose built house, which was handily placed for the boat marina.
I arrived quite late in the afternoon, but was amazed at how busy it was. There was a reasonably substantial shopping centre. It was great to have a good catch up, but after dinner I was quite keen to walk about, feeling very full from both morning and afternoon tea plus lunch and dinner, which seems to be the hospitable kiwi way. Another new tradition is eating cheese with a drink of wine before dinner. I’ve certainly devoured a good amount of Brie cheese before dinner along with New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Dianne was keen to walk with me so we set off along the beach. It stretches for miles, or so it seems.
We called into where Dianne’s son was staying and after a brief chat returned through the streets, which was a bit quicker. Even so we must have done a good 8k.
The next day was so wet there was nothing else to do but sit, chat and eat. The afternoon was a bit brighter so we headed down to the harbour. There are an amazing number of boats there.
The harbour was dredged out and purpose built. There is some wealth in these boats. The sun gradually appeared as we walked through town and came to another place where the children do”water bombing”, which consists of jumping off the pier into the water and presumably making as big a splash as possible. It certainly keeps them entertained at high tide. We were looking for Dianne’s grandson, but couldn’t find him. He called later and managed to find himself in one of my photos.
Whangamata is very well equipped with skate board parks in addition to all the water sports: certainly wonderful for children.
Later in the afternoon one of Howard and Dianne’s son, Kevin called round followed by his son. We had a great chat followed by dinner. Dianne had made another kiwi speciality, Bacon and Egg Pie. The following morning Howard and Dianne drove me back to Waihi.