We started out this morning in a drizzle, getting our coffees and gassing up the car. We of course took the scenic route, the curviest road, towards Whanganui. From the mountains to the sea, the Tasman Sea! We know nothing about Whanganui, but the signs as we approached said it is part of the Unesco Creative Cities Network. We stopped in town and took a stroll from the riverfront up to the Regional Museum back down along Victoria Avenue to see the sights.

Unfortunately the Museum is undergoing renovations and was closed, encased in a plastic envelope!

We turned around and went down to the main thoroughfare where they are putting up the holiday decorations!

Insert pre-decorated evergreen branch C into trunk slot Z. It is a puzzle of a Christmas Tree!

On Victoria Avenue there are lots of buildings from the late 1800’s to the Art Deco era of the 1920’s and 30’s. The Watt Fountain is a mainstay, although it has been moved around town many times.

The fountain now sits at it’s original location (installed originally  in 1881, returned to this spot in 1993).

We stopped in at the local i-site (the visitor center) and got information about the tower we saw across the river. It is a war memorial erected on Durie Hill in 1925 to commemorate the local men who died in WWI. There is a unique way to get there though. There is a tunnel to an elevator that takes you up the hill to the base of the tower! The Durie Hill Memorial Tower and Elevator.

The walkway to the tunnel is lined with Maori carved totems.

It’s quite a tunnel to the elevator!

We exited the elevator and walked the short distance to the tower and climbed the 176 steps to the top!

The view looking back down to the orange building with the spiral staircase where you exit the elevator, the Whanganui River and the bridge over the river on Victoria Avenue.

We finished our tour just in time. At the top of the tower the wind was roaring and rain started falling. We elected to walk down the hill rather than take the elevator down because a school group arrived that were taking the elevator. We had a leisurely walk down the many stairs and we headed out of town, the rain followed soon after!

We got up before the crack of dawn to see the full moon setting over the Bay of Plenty, behind Mt. Maunganui. Our last morning in the Bay View Bach.

The lights on the horizon to the right of the moon are ships either leaving or entering the Port of Tauranga.

Yesterday, after our epic hike and packing and cleaning the bach, we went out for a few beers and a light dinner with some folks we had met a week ago. We had a wonderful time talking about our adventures and hearing about their life in Te Puke. Mark, the patriarch, is a kiwi farmer and he offered us a quick tour of his orchard the next morning. So we packed the car up and left at 7:15am to meet him at his orchard a 10 minute drive away. We had a great visit with him and learned about the NZ kiwifruit (formerly the Chinese gooseberry).

Baby kiwifruit. We don’t get the best of the crop in the US! The kiwifruit here in the local stores are twice as big!

After saying our goodbyes we continued on towards a hike we planned on our way south. Our destination was the Maramataha Bridge on the Timber Trail, a hiking & biking trail through the Pureroa Forest Park.

The longest and highest suspension bridge on the Timber Trail!

It crosses the Maramataha River, home to the whio or blue duck, a critically endangered NZ native bird. The bridge allows for bikers and hikers to pass over the river without disturbing the critical habitat of the ducks.

After our almost 2 hour walk through the regenerating forest we continued towards our night’s stay in Ohakune. Our friends in the pub last night said that it’s a great little ski town. I was thinking maybe bunny hills, I was not prepared for a huge snow capped active volcano!

Our first view of Mt. Ruapehu, one of NZ’s most active volcanos!

As we got closer the clouds dissipated and we had a clear view!

The quaint town of Ohakune reminded us of a smaller version of Bend. A skiable volcano nearby, a river running through it, the Mangawhero River, and a newspaper named The Bulletin!

One of the businesses that caters to the winter visitors!

Ohakune has wound down it’s ski season and the summer traffic has not yet begun. We had a leisurely stroll around town during shoulder season, something Bend no longer has!

We had a beautiful day and headed out for a hike before we got down to business packing to move. We decided to head to the road to Newdick’s Beach, a private road we thought was closed but learned that for a small fee we could drive or hike there. Since it’s walking distance we decided to hike! After paying our $2 NZ to walk the private road, it was a 15 minute stroll down a lane until we saw the water, and a rope swing!

Of course if there’s a swing, I must swing!

To the right was a sandy beach that headed towards the Holiday Park opposite Pukahina Beach.We looked to the left, towards the cobble beach and Okurei Point.

What’s around the point? We decided to explore.

Beautiful expansive vistas out to sea, and tiny masterpieces of nature on shore.

We made it around the point, carefully stepping across the cobble beach.

The rounded tip of Okurei Point.

On the other side of the point we decided we might as well hike all the way to Maketu beach, we could see it in the distance, but how many obstacles would be in our way?

As we hiked, carefully watching our steps over rocks and trees, we looked up to see a sea lion climbing up on a rock close to shore. It was totally oblivious to us! We watched for a little while, then continued on our way.

We could see the beach stretching to the Maketu Beachside Cafe, a welcome sight after our careful trek over the cobbles!

We are very lucky that it was low tide! We saw the marks on the cliff wall that if the tide was up, it would be impassable!

Our route around the point! What an adventure! Over 4 miles round trip from the bach and back.

We went into Te Puke to do some errands in preparation for our next move. Our time in Bay of Plenty is winding down and we’re getting ready to move down to Wellington for our next adventures. While we have been here at Bay View Bach for the past 26 days we’ve seen the flowers budding and now blooming!

Indigo?

Mandevilla?

Blue hibiscus?

And the prolific lemon tree! Overlooking the cutest play house! I used many lemons on the grilled fish and found out that grilled lemon is delicious!

This morning we took our walk down to town with a slight detour towards Okurei Point. We found another marker with more information about Historic Maketu “One Community, Two Histories” (Maori and Pakeha-European). This point of land was settled by Maori between 700 and 1000 years ago and was a prominent village with fortifications and cultivated fields of kumara (sweet potato), taro, uwhi (yam) and hue (bottle gourd). When Capt. Cook sailed by in 1796 he noticed the large village above the cliff and named it Town Point.

An aerial view of Okurei Point. The red arrow points to our Bach, the blue arrow points to Maketu Beach.

We headed to Maketu Beach to the Maketu Beachside Cafe & Restaurant for lunch.

Literally beachside!

Robert ordered the pan-fried fish & chips, with a great cabbage salad. I had the fish burger with the salad on it!

We heard the patter of feet and looked up to see a gull walking on the semi transparent roof!

His/her webbed feet!