The Gisborne Farmers Market

 

Sponge Bay

T had said we needed to be at the market by 9 o’clock to be assured of getting the best vegetables.  It was another bluebird day promising to heat up considerably during day. 

When we arrived at the market was really buzzing but no one was selling anything.  We discovered that they aren’t allowed sell until a bell is rung.  So here were the hordes of people wanting give away their money in exchange for their goods but unable buy anything.  The bell was duly rung and money began exchanging hands.  It was not a large market compared to the Hawkes Bay Market or for that matter the Marlborough Farmers Market, but they had a range of product including vegetables, breads, honey, macadamias, and preserves.  The vendors seemed to be doing a reasonable business.  One vendor had Manuka honey for $10 a kilogramme but I don’t think it was tested for the antibacterial factor.  

Gisborne Farmers Market

I took the vegetables back to the AirBnB as I didn’t want the heat to ruin them.  Then it was back to the cottage for some finishing touches. 

The cottage

On the way back to the AirBnB Trudy suggested I call into a berry shop.  I did so and I spied some boysenberries that I have not had for a while.  They looked really nice so got a ice-cream container of them (the only option).  I was waiting for Trudy as we were going have a coffee, so I sat down on a bench and put the berries on table.  Just as I did that the bench tipped up and I ended on the ground along with the berries which also tipped down.  They were not cheap so I gathered them up and put them in the container to wash when I got back to the house. 

T said that she  decided she was going back home that afternoon and asked what I wanted to do.   I could understand her need to get back to her home as it. I didn’t want travel in the heat of the afternoon.  There would be enough of that the next day and I was planning to leave as early as possible to avoid as much of the heat as I could.  There was also the Hawkes Bay Farmers Market  to visit as a break on my way back to Wellington .  And, I wanted to enjoy the warm dry weather before venturing back to Wellington and the lousy weather we were having at the moment.

I helped T fill her little car to the gunnels.  It was amazing how much it could take.   

After T departed I changed into my cycling gear and headed out to see what other delights were to be seen around the city. I visited Sponge Bay which is another surfing beach.  The access to the beach was restricted due to a storm having eroded the cliff surrounding the beach.  The steps had been washed away and the carpark had huge chunk out of it. 

View from Sponge Bay looking to Young Nicks Head

I road into town along the cycleway and took my time looking at the various points of interest.  Being a nice day there were a number of riders and walkers.  Oneroa Beach was a hive of activity with brave souls walking gingerly into what must have been reasonably cool water.  The temperature was almost perfect being not too hot or too cold with a gentle cooling breeze coming off the water. 

I rode along the main street.  They have tried to beautify it but it still looked a little run down to me.  There are some very old buildings that are still occupied by shops giving it quaint look. 

I rode alongside the river to the confluence of two of them where they combined to flow out to sea.  It is easy to see how Gisborne floods with the two rivers combining to over flow the banks when rainstorms like the recent cyclone occur.  The city is very flat!

After returning to the AirBnB I packed up the car and tidied up the house ready for an early departure on Sunday morning.  It had been a really interesting stay there and the weather couldn’t have been better. 

Looking toward Kaiti Beach

Oneroa Beach

A representation of Young Nick pointing out land

One of the rivers

The confluence

 

A pizza, a beanbag and a movie

 

My day started with a walk to the local café for my daily coffee.  At 9am it was already quite warm and promising to get hotter.  Then it was onto the cottage and continuing with the cleaning of the windows.  My arms felt like lead as the muscles had really had a good workout the previous day.  There were muscles that clearly had not been used for some time. 

 

By the time we finished the temperature had climbed to the late 20s but as humidity was really low it was quite manageable and almost manageable if one was in the shade. 

 

I had never been to Matawhero Wines, which was one of the earlier boutique wineries, and T wanted visit it so off we went.  They made their name when Denis Irwin, the owner, made a Gewürztraminer that won a number of gold medals in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  It was a long lived and particularly lovely wine.

 

The winery was in a lovely setting with tables out on the front lawn mostly in the shade.  It was far too hot to sit in the sun.  We sat on the veranda and had a flight of 5 wines including the iconic Gewürztraminer, a more recent version of course.  The wines were well made with the best probably being the said Gewürztraminer and coming in second, in my view, a single vineyard Chardonnay.  I The winery was only open for three and a half hours and our late arrival meant it was a quick departure as the hostess booted us out claiming both that the license required her to stop serving at 3:30 and to have everyone gone ten minutes later.  She also said she had been working really hard that day.  It sounded a very strange license requirement. 

Matawhero winery

 

We then headed back into town to a Mediterranean food shop called Vetro, which T said was very good.  I was able to find stuff that was difficult if not impossible to procure in Wellington.  The retail assistant was from Argentina and so we talked about the political situation and then moved onto the the food and wine of both countries.  She commented about how the Argentina had the potential to be very wealthy but that wealth had been squandered or only gone to a few elites.  I commented that we had been to Mendoza and how we had a love affair with the wine.  For her the wines were the better than New Zealand.  She liked the big and bold flavours whereas she found New Zealand wines to be rather insipid.  I agree with her description of the Argentinian wines but I think that NZ wines are by and large extremely good on the quality/value for money spectrum.  Argentinian ones are as well particularly as their peso is almost worthless.

 

T had decided that we should go to the movies.  The movie was Pulp Fiction.  The venue was The Dome which turned out to be a former gentleman’s club one of many that were dotted around the country.  It was all faded glory.  Some of the furniture dated from sixty to seventy years ago and were  long past their best.   It was all dark panelling and dim light so much that I could imagine the landed gentry in smoke filled rooms, fulminating against the government, the council or anything else that irritated them.  It was likely that no women permitted back before about 1980.  Now apart from a few places in the main centres these places have died along with their patrons.  Many of my generation couldn’t think of anything worse that belonging to such a club.

 

The movie was held in a room with beautiful stained-glass domes adorning the ceiling.  I walked in to see that we were being seated in bean bags in a semi reclining position arranged by the staff.  We were the oldest there by two generations. We were literally eased into the correct sitting or reclining position and there were even beanbags for the feet.    It was very cute.  There was an intermission when the pizza and chips arrived for each of the guests. 

 

I remember seeing Pulp Fiction back in the 1990s but apart from the violence I couldn’t remember much else.  Seeing it again thirty years later it wasn’t all that violent and the story was engaging as were the protagonists. The dialogue was brilliant. It was wonderful entertainment and a triumph of film making, in my opinion, and it still feels very fresh.

A beach and a cottage

 

It was a beautiful clear blue sky that greeted me when I opened the curtains.  T was still hunkered down in her bedroom so I decided to go for a walk to the beach which I had been assured was only 15 minutes’ walk away.  Indeed it was!

 

The beach was a beautiful strip of light grey sand still showing the effects of the storms that have blighted this region over the past year.  There are still significant amounts of forestry slash. 

Wainui Beach

 

The beach is renowned as a premier surf beach said to be the best in New Zealand.  When I got there I stopped to talk with a guy who had a camera set up to take photos of the local surfers.  He said he was doing it make up a surfing calendar.  He had motorcycle with a trailer which he said he took all around NZ following the surf breaks. 

Riding the waves

 

The sea was full of black wetsuit clad surfers bobbing up and down on the waves before they launched themselves onto breaking wave.  They were all ages.  Further along the beach from where I was some people had constructed a pavilion made out of the slash.  It looked reasonably sturdy given that it had nothing physical like nails or rope holding it together.  Someone had even set up a Christmas tree inside it.  Not only were there surfers, there were beach walkers and the girlfriends of the surfers, the latter were absorbed in watching what was happening to their partners on the water.   

 

After breakfast I called into the local café to get a cup of coffee.  It is a vegan café so the milk for my flat white was oat milk but I had a choice of others.  The coffee was rather good.  The food offerings didn’t look too bad either. 

 

T’s deceased son’s cottage is very cute.  Very old and in need of someone who wants a rather large renovation job.  It was good to do a bit of manual work like digging out things.  Such activity doesn’t happen when you live in a flat.  The closest one gets to such exercise is potting plants or herbs, which is not the most physical of activities.  My job was to dig out a couple of planter boxes and then to clean some windows that were covered in some gritlike stuff that seemed embedded into the glass.  With heat rising it was rather difficult to keep the water on long enough for the cleaning materials to do their thing. 

 

After some lunch back at the AirBnB I took my bike on a ride into Gisborne.  It was rather nice being on a manual bike again.  The trail was concrete so  it was easy riding on a route that was very flat. Almost nothing like it in Wellington except for going around the bays .  The cycle path took us from Wainui Beach to the port area.  The area around the port is rather pretty in an industrial sort of wa and is full of restaurants and cafés .  I kept following the cycle path and it took me to Waikanae beach which was not quite as nice as Wainui.  Several kite surfers were taking advantage of the northeasterly wind.

Looking toward the port

 

Commerating the beginning of colonisation

Waikanae Beach looking toward the port

Captain James Cook first landed in New Zealand looking for food and supplies.  It was not an auspicious beginning with Cook mistaking a haka for aggression and killing a number Maori before going back to the Endeavour and sailing further up the coast where they landed and were able to get water and some food. There was another statue to him on Kaiti Hill but that was controversial and I think it was removed some years ago.  It was not even a likeness of him.  Not sure the current one is either. 

 

The ride back to the AirBnB was a bit more energy inducing due to a brisk head wind.  The exercise was good and I like seeing the neighbourhood at a slower speed than driving. 

I sat in the shade reading for the rest of the afternoon.  We went to a restaurant called Works for dinner.  It is in the port area and was an old warehouse or something before being repurposed.  The food was ok with T having the pick of the dishes, a pork loin with a slightly hot sauce and interesting vegetables.  Unfortunately, my main of snapper was dry and slightly overcooked.  Everything was crisp and quite tasteless.    It was a disappointment. 

Ringside view of the action

Girlfriends and assorted supporters

 

A trip to Gisborne - Driving to Gisborne

 

My friend T had asked me to come to Gisborne to help do some work around a house that her deceased son had owned.  I was at first reluctant but decided that it would be an interesting adventure. 

 

I had a meeting to go to on the day I was planning to leave so I had packed the bags and loaded the bike on the back of the car ready for a speedy departure.  According to Maps the distance was 537 kilometres or thereabouts taking the fastest route.  It was predicted to take 7½ hours. 

 

Wellington had rare nice start to the day being very mild and even warm.  It felt like summer.  I wandered down to the barber and had my well overdue haircut.  I was starting to look like some eccentric old bloke I thought.  Then it was a walk to CAB picking up some cherries along the way.  I had a bit of time so I stopped for a coffee.  

 

The meeting was long and didn’t seem to go anywhere with some people dominating which is very irritating.  While sitting there I suddenly realised that I had forgotten to pick up my cherries.  That was the third thing I had left behind in an hour.  A cap and then my glasses at the barber’s.  I wondered about my memory for a moment.  

 

Fortunately when I returned to the café they had kept my cherries for me.  That was so nice.  

 

I got away soon after getting home.  The route I took was up towards Palmerston North and then over Saddle Hill to Woodville.  The GPS said it was the fastest but I think with all the traffic delays it would have been quicker going up through Greytown.  

 

I stopped for lunch and coffee at Woodville and then it was through to Napier where I stopped to get fuel.  Then I had a hold up going out of Napier.  It was one of the many roadworks that I encountered during the journey.  It was rather slow going from Napier to Wairoa.  There were many one way stretches and even a bailey bridge to go over.  Many of these were controlled by traffic lights.  I can see why the road was closed for so long, there were dropouts all along the route, the hills were scarred with slips but where there was native bush it seemed to have been spared.  The creeks and streams were still full of forestry slash and I guess what is left is just a small percentage of what came out of the hills.  I had forgotten what steep, narrow and windy route it was.   The contractors have done an amazing job getting the road open.  T had driven the road six weeks previously and said the progress since she came up had been significant. 

 

A cyclone certainly wrecks devastation on the land but it also heals quickly and it possible to see the green starting to appear in places where there was once mud. 

 

I stopped briefly at Wairoa to go to the loo and stretch my legs.  I finally arrived in Gisborne at 7:30pm.  An eight hour drive it was which is half an hour longer than predicted by Maps.  The hour and half from Wairoa was on a road that also had experienced its fair share of damage however, it is not as steep and windy as the Napier to Wairoa section.

 

Finally I arrived in Wainui a seaside suburb of Gisborne.  I will be interested to see the famed surf beach just around the corner.

 

Some of the driving left a lot to be desired with one bloke passing just before a blind corner and another passing on double yellow lines.  They were really lucky not kill themselves and some other poor sod coming the other way.  New Zealand drivers are so bad it is no wonder we kill so many.  Part of the problem is that our roads are relatively narrow, full of vehicles and lots of trucks which are very long and are difficult to pass even when there are passing lanes as the truck and trailer units  are so long.

Exploring the hinterland

Byabarra Cafe

I had always wondered what the hinterland was.  It seems that it is the bit of land a few kilometres inland from the sea before the Great Dividing Range.  Beyond that is the Outback where you find the black stump. 

Bev wanted to call into a café at a little national park on the outskirts of Port Macquarie for a coffee.  It was a very nice peaceful place in an area of remnant subtropical rain forest.  After our coffee Bev decided we should take a walk around the forest on the elevated boardwalk.  It was quite beautiful.  We heard a few species bird calls none of which we could identify, saw a reptile that looked like a snake (called a land mullet) but in fact has little legs.  We were also told there were monitor lizards around and brush turkeys (which Bev spotted two of).  The bush is so unlike the NZ bush, and despite recent rain there was not the same wet smell you get in NZ.  

After our walk we headed off to Wauchope on what was described as a tourist drive.  The town was described in the brochure as being a full of cafés and interesting shops.  It was Sunday and most of them were shut and there did not seem to be many cafés – it was a bit underwhelming.  Of course there were a couple of large clubs - one related to sport and the other and RSL.  They are very much part of the fabric of Australian life.

As we left the village we got hit with a tropical downpour.  The rain battered the car for a few minutes then it was all over.  Our next stop was to be Comboyne for lunch.  The road we were on was very much like one in the Waikato countryside, all rolling hills and lush green paddocks broken up by stands of eucalyptus trees. 

We slowed to pass through a little place called Byabarra when we both spied an interesting looking café with lots of cars.  We decided that it must be reasonably good so called in and despite looking small from the outside it opened out into quite a large venue with expansive views over a very green valley.  The village consisted of the café, a church and a few houses.  We had some rather nice food sitting outside looking out at the view.

The road from there took us up the side of an escarpment, through a forest recently devastated by a fire onto the Comboyne plateau.  Apparently caused by a person tossing out a cigarette while waiting at a stop/go light.  This was dairying country, and it certainly was lush and green from the recent rain.  However, we were told that many farms were diversifying into other things such as avocado farming and pigs due to water issues and climate change. 

Bev wanted to call into a place called Larrikins Gaol where there was coffee and gifts made by local artists as well as garden centre.  I ended up having a long chat to the woman owner of the place who said she had bought the gaol and done it up with recycled local timber as the building was run down.  She even had photos of it from the past into including one showing its derelict state when acquired.

After a walk around the cute little village which even had a police station we headed off toward a place called Lorne on a gravel road that was in rather good condition.  We never did see Lorne despite us having been through it apparently.  We went through another place called Laurieton and climbed up to a view point called North Head in the Dooragon national park which was one of the higher points around the area at 480 metres.  There was a very good but hazy view of the surrounds including the coast both northeast and southwest. It was also a location for hang gliders but there were none to be seen today.

Our day ended with another barbecue meal sitting on our little deck. 

Views from North Head looking toward North Haven (top) and Northeast to Lake Cathie

A museum, a coastal walk and picking strawberries

The former Court House

We awoke to the sound of rain falling on our roof.  It was a nice way to start the day.  Fortunately it only lasted for a little while and soon we were on our way to explore Port Macquarie. 

Port Macquarie was established as a penal colony for prisoners transported from the UK who had committed a second offence in the colony of NSW.  It was identified as a suitable place by the surveyor-general of NSW John Oxley.  The town began to be settled by convicts in 1821 and they began by building their own accommodation.  Of course, there was a garrison of soldiers who kept watch over them as well administering severe punishment of 10 to 50 lashes.  They were cruel times.  We learnt all this in the local museum which was housed in an old storehouse that had been bought by the local historical society. 

The local museum

The town itself sits at the entrance to the Hastings River and like New Plymouth has a wonderful coastal walk.  The population is around 50,000 people and has been marketed as a resort for the past 90 or so years.  It is rather lovely and laid back.  There seem to be quite a few retirees and while walking the Breakwall (part of the coastal walk) we encountered a retired farmer from Orange who had retired to the town.  He was interesting and charming until he began stating openly that he thought problems in Australia were the result of people of coloured people immigrating to Australia.  We weren’t going to change his mind, so we ended our conversation and continued our walk.  I think he was lonely as he had recently lost his wife. One interesting feature of the walk were the painted stones which had all manner of drawings on them, sometimes referencing people.  It made it interesting and colourful.

Breakwater walk part of the coastal walk

One of my favourites

A stop for coffee and lunch on Town Beach enabled us to relax, eat and watch the sunbathers and surfers.  We both commented that it is easy to see why there is so much melanoma in Australia with may spending extended time lying in the sunshine. 

Town Beach

The local visitors’ magazine highlighted picking strawberries at “Ricardoes” a few kilometres from town.  Remarkably, Bev who is not a fan of strawberries suggested we go there.  They also grow tomatoes.  It was a big enterprise with lots of preserves and even had New Zealand manuka honey for sale. 

The picking of strawberries was so easy and before we knew it we had both consumed a few of the exceptionally sweet and ripe berries and had a bucket full. 

Finally, before heading back to our cabin we went for a drive south down the coast to see places that had been recommended.  The little settlements were obviously places where baches had once been but were now substantial homes.   There were also new developments, presumably because the land is cheap and you can build a large house with four bedrooms, two garages multiple bathrooms, etc on a pocket-sized section. On the other hand the beaches were superb with vast stretches of golden sand and surf and were largely empty. 

I cooked a steak for dinner on the barbecue in the common area and then back at our cabins and we sat eating it on our veranda, with a glass of wine,  enjoying the last of the light in the warm balmy air. 

The old and the new hotels

Road Trip to Port Macquarie - December 2023

I had thought that Port Macquarie was situated at Lake Macquarie which is just south of Newcastle in New South Wales.  However, I soon discovered that it was in what they call the Mid North Coast.  About ten years ago we had spent a lovely weekend at Lake Macquarie, riding our bikes and exploring the area.  For some reason I had wanted to go to see Port Macquarie and Bev had decided it was a good place to go for a road trip. 

 

Port Macquarie is around 360 kilometres north of Sydney.  We had been booked to stay in luxury cabins at a place called Little Palms Cabin at Lake Cathie (pronounced Cat-eye). Apparently this is to differentiate it from other places which are spelt Catti.  How you get Cat-eye from Cathie is beyond me. 

 

The trip to Lake Cathie is along the Pacific Highway a motorway that goes from Sydney to Brisbane as far as I can tell.  Otherwise it isknown as A1.  It is a bit like our expressways and is a continuation of the M1 from Sydney to Newcastle.  Having just driven from Auckland to Wellington the only comparison of the quality of the road are the motorways south of Auckland and north of Wellington.  It makes driving easy and much safer.   Much of the road goes through eucalypt forest and avoids the numerous little towns and villages that dot the coastal strip. 

 

We stopped for some lunch at a rest stop about halfway to Lake Cathie.  It was a random stop but a fortunate one as there was a coffee cart there to sate our coffee addiction while we ate the baguette, we bought in Pymble. 

 

Lake Cathie is a little village ten minutes south of Port Macquarie.  The cabin in which we are staying is very cute.  After arriving and unpacking the car we went for a walk to beach.  It is one of those beaches that often feature in advertisements for Australia, long and golden framed by a deep blue sea and dunes.  We were surprised that there was no one swimming there but it was late afternoon so that was perhaps the reason. 

 

Our cute little cabin

Nearby our cabin is a pub and supermarket.  Bev thought that the fruit was considerably cheaper in that supermarket than in Sydney, perhaps the result of property being so much cheaper up here.  Although, the prices of houses were still just under a million dollars and some well over. 

 

We had a drink on our little veranda and then we headed to the local pub for a meal.  It was in true Aussie style a big barn of a tavern and reminded me of the Hillcrest Tavern in Hamilton of my youth.  We ordered our meal and then waited and waited.  Eventually after about forty minutes I went up to the kitchen to find where our meal was.

“We were inundated with orders,” I was told.

“How long will it be as we have been waiting for a long time now?”  I asked.

“About 10 minutes!”

 

Bev continued to entertain me while I quietly thought about the next move.  After twenty minutes and no food we decided Bev might be a better person to go up and ask so off she goes to be told the same as me and that it was about 2 minutes away! Humph I said when she told me that and I estimated it would be about ten to fifteen minutes.  Fifteen minutes later I decided I would go to the people who took the money and complain.  Just as I was walking there the buzzer thing went notifying me that the meal was ready.  Sure enough it was there.  We were about the last to be served, over an hour and a half later after placing our order.

 

Remarkably the food was quite good for pub food. 

 

I commented that as we walked back to our cabin how warm it was - a soft almost tropical warmth which had me worrying about sleeping but I crashed out easily.