Northland - west coast

From Coromandel, I drove right through Auckland as far as Dargaville to begin my west coast exploration of Northland. I made a brief stop at Matakohe en route, where there is a beautiful kauri museum I have seen previously. The cemetery next to the church was interesting: I guess I was expecting to see a lot of Dalmatian names, but instead I saw lots of Smith family headstones!

I stayed the night in a simple but comfortable motel that took me back to the 70s in many ways- and the owner was a very personable man, who had got up very early one morning in Kaitaia to reach Cape Reinga before sunrise. The motel wasn't far from the large river which runs through the town.

Next morning as I drove north, the rainfall of previous days was obvious in paddocks. Hard to believe that Northland/Auckland was in serious drought before my arrival!

My next stop was at the Kai Iwi freshwater dune lakes. I had learned about dune lakes as part of my NZ Flora course where we looked at the plants colonising the dunes along the Himatangi coast, but I was very surprised by the size of these ones.

I had seen Tane Mahuta before, but of course had to stop off to see this grand kauri tree again. There were some other kauri walks in the vicinity, but only one of the three was open, and it was 50mins return. I just didn't feel like risking the rain again, sook that I am, and didn't walk it. 

It wasn't long before I reached the twin Hokianga towns of Omapere and Opononi. The beautiful view when I first saw Hokianga Harbour took my breath away again.

I had lunch here but decided to move on almost to my own bemusement. I had previously passed through here midsummer when it was too busy to even think of trying to park and stop for a while- but somehow it all felt too "Auckland" for me today.
So it was on to Rawene, where a winter timetable for the ferry sailing meant I had just missed one, and had to wait nearly an hour for the next one. (My punishment for skipping a night in Opononi I guess!)

It was already getting dark when I arrived in Kaitaia, and I had no idea where I would stay. Fortunately I saw a motel vacancy sign, a petrol station and a sign pointing north for Cape Reinga all within 50 metres or so- so I found a place to hunker down for the night.

Windy Point

I am sitting on a comfy seat at Windy Point, the furtherest point on my walk along the Manawatu Gorge track today. As I sit here I am aware of the beauty around me, and also that my 'training' walks are nearly at an end.

This time in five weeks I will be in Paris. Here it is approaching midday Saturday, but there it will be more like midnight Friday. I hope I will be sleeping soundly after a busy day exploring the streets of Paris -and that I am not lying in bed wide awake jetlagged.

This time in six weeks I will have started walking the Chemin from Cluny.

But for now I am sitting in this Beautiful Spot in the sunshine. I can see Ashhurst nestled on the plain at the end of the gorge I began from, and I can see Woodville through at the other end. Across from me on the other side of the gorge, the hills are covered with gently moving wind turbines. The sound of cicadas is loud in the air, and just a few birds can be heard singing.

I've typed this on my iPod Touch for practice. I'll blog it later and add photos when I get home.

Sent from my iPod

I composed this at Windy Point on the "Notes" app on my iPod Touch, then sent it to email- just to see what would happen- though I knew I had no wifi up there. As soon as I arrived home within wifi range, the e-mail clearly sent itself. So that was a good lesson learned: I can compose e-mails and they will sit there until I am in wifi reach, then send themselves....

All these photos of Windy Point have been posted to the blog back at home. There's no camera on my old iPod Touch, so for photos I have to wait until I find a computer where I can download photos from my camera- hence there won't be heaps of photos posted en route on the Chemin...

Sign for Windy Lookout- it's a very brief diversion off the track

Looking down over Woodville and towards the hill country of the eastern part of the Tararua region.

Looking back towards Ashhurst on the Manawatu Plains.

Wind turbines on the hills on the other side of the river.

The comfy seat where I sat and composed the blog post on my iPod Touch. I nearly left my camera behind here!

I always love seeing this cabbage tree on the lookout, and enjoy seeing what kind of cloudy skies will figure behind it in a photo!

Flowers out of Rock

I wrote this paragraph some weeks ago as I reflected on my reasons for walking again- (and it is posted below in Moments of pilgrimage).

The memory of seeing a flower bursting forth out of rock

and the celebration it wrought in my heart

seems like a reason to walk again

as if somehow this healing is important for more than just me.

The day in my mind about which I wrote these lines was a special day, a healing day- just after I had taken a rest day in Estaing to recuperate a little from blisters. I knew renewed joy as I walked more freely in the welcome sunshine, past spring flowers, until suddenly I saw some flowers growing so improbably out of rock- and it seemed like a miracle.

This weekend I did my first 20km 'training walk' and I knew a similar joy. I was retracing a road near town that I had walked along many times in 2007-8 as I trained for the Camino.  And suddenly I saw some spring clematis spiralling down in front of a rocky road cutting. It was a sight of beauty, another wee miracle to be thankful for. A sight of beauty to hold in the memory of the heart and soul.

Native clematis in springtime on Kahuterawa Rd, near Palmerston North

And I think these flowers are kind of like an arrow- the joy they bring shows that walking in the countryside is the right thing for me to do...