Spring time memories

Thank you, Monica, for suggesting making use of my memories when my imagination is out to lunch.

Do other Facebook users enjoy the "You have memories to look back on" function?  I only hooked into it recently and am loving it.  Seems this is usually a very busy time of year for me.  But perhaps re-living my trip to UK and Europe around this time of year 6 years ago has left me feeling a bit sad thinking about how the world has changed since then.  

Instead I decided to dwell on how thankful I am that I made that trip when I did and the pleasures that remain the same. I'm surrounded by the signs of spring, new life, so the beauty of the changing seasons came to mind

Then I remembered the dolphins. 

During the autumn and winter of 2009 I ran a backpackers at surfside Mangawhai.  Most of the time during winter it was very quiet, many nights there was just 21 year old Aiden, a permanent guest during the week, and me.  Looking after the backpackers wasn't a fulltime job, I had three other part-time jobs, so I was kept busy.  It was a really happy time of my life.  I enjoyed meeting the backpackers from all over the world, I was pretty much in my element having new people to chat with all the time.

But the very best thing that happened during that time was the dolphins that visited at the surf beach.   A guest who was there for the surfing came in one evening hardly able to talk he was so excited.  He'd been riding a wave and saw a dark shape in the water beside him, on the side closest to the rocks.  At first he thought it was a rock, then he fell off his board as the "rock" shot out the front of the wave, flipped in the air over the crest of the wave.  He got back on his board and sat there, stunned, looking around and sure enough the dolphin came back, along with 5 or 6 mates.  He said they were obviously showing off, showing him how to really ride a wave.

After that, I started to take my regular walks along the surf beach rather than along the estuary closer to home. I saw them a number of times playing in the waves, sometimes only one or two, sometimes quite a gathering of them. They were small, were they children?

One day when I had with me 5 Finnish backpackers we all rolled up our trousers and waded into the surf with them. It was September, around this time of year, the water was freezing but we got quite carried away with the excitement of being there in the water with the dolphins. The taller guys could spread their legs wide enough for these darling little creatures to swim through. Obviously they were enjoying the fun as much as we were.

It was a remarkable, unforgettable experience. Just to see the delight in the eyes of the tourists would have been enough but I know that delight was also reflected in mine.

That was the last time I saw the dolphins. I figured that as the water warmed up they moved on.

But I will never forget the excitement and sheer joy of that day.

Magical Mangawhai where the dolphins played 

Today I believe summer really is coming.  I'm not going to get too excited about it, because I know what a witch Lady Spring is.  She lures you into tossing aside you winter woolies then hit you with a wintery blast, she may not be ready to roll over and make way for summer just yet.

And then, there's the good news for the day.  We in the north, along with the rest of the country outside Auckland, will have our Covid restrictions lifted from mid-night tomorrow night. 

 

Ta da!

Another long way home

Coming home from Matakana last Thursday I decided the day was too lovely to waste coping with all the traffic on the highway, so I came home 'over the hill' to Leigh and then carried on the long way home coming via Mangawhai and Langs Beach.  

Mangawhai was in sparkling form making it easy to understand the 'Magical Mangawhai' marketing.   All was quiet down by the estuary.  The tide was running out and the late afternoon lengthening shadows reaching out over the sand.  Although it was school holiday time, the holiday makers had mostly gone for the day. 

Around near the parking lot at the surf beach,  there was a stiff breeze so I didn't linger on any of the seats to enjoy the view, either down the estuary or along the beach.

 

I hoped to get to Langs Cove before the sun was lost for the day.

Floundering

Thank you, Pondside, for a comment you left on a recent blog post which reminded me of a similar misadventure years ago. 

It was in winter in the late 80s or early 90s.  I was keeping company with a lovely man from Mangawhai, not far from where I lived.  During the summer months we had enjoyed going floundering at night.  Let me rephrase that – we enjoyed night-time flounder fishing the old fashioned away, with a spear. 

We would wade in shallow water as quietly as possible along the estuary armed with a light held close to the surface of the water.  The flounder is a flat fish which come into very shallow water - sometimes only inches deep - after sunset.   Stalking shallow beach water and estuarine areas by night offers a totally different dimension to fishing. The fish life can be prolific, with mullet, eels and other creatures of the night more common than the skittish flounder, which can be difficult to see, camouflaged against the sand.    When the light is shone on the flounder, they stay very still and should make an easy target.  Well, you’d think it would be easy.  More fun than easy really.  Many flounder lived to swim another day.

When the nights became cooler my companion, Allan, applied himself to thinking up a way we could still go floundering without having our feet in cold, cold water for hours.  He came up with a lamp that operated under water (maybe it was battery operated, I can’t remember) which we could suspend from the front of his kayak.  It worked well.  In theory.  In practise, I found it difficult to gauge the depth of the water while seated in the kayak rather than knowing how far up the legs it came while wading.  I thought I was getting the hang of it when I spotted a BIG flounder and thrust the spear at it.  However, the spear (with me holding on to the end of it) travelled much deeper into the water than I thought it would and I became unbalanced and we tipped into the freezing water.  OK, just very cold.  But far too cold for me.  I screamed and shrieked and then we laughed and laughed as we hurriedly hauled in the kayak, got it on to the car and headed home for a much needed change of clothes and some warmth.  

In those days Mangwhai had a permanent population of about 600 (which was much larger during the summer months) and houses close to where we had lunched the kayak were all holiday homes.  No lights, no-one around.  So we presumed no-one was aware of our misadventure.

A week or so later we were visiting friends who lived on the cliff above the estuary but quite some distance from where we had been.  After a while the man said we should have been at their place during the week.  He and his wife had been watching TV when they heard a blood curdling scream above the sound of the TV.  It came from down on the water and they were alarmed, wondering what on earth was going on down there.  They thought someone was having their throat cut or something equally terrible.  But after a while they heard laughter and voices.  They thought the laughter sounded familiar but hadn’t been able to work out who it belong to.  Allan and I didn’t say a word but must have exchanged a look, or a smile because they then remembered whose laugh it was they had heard.  We had forgotten how sound travels on the water on a still night.  

I know Allan reads my blog.  Do you remember that night, Allan?  Good times!

Signs

Something off in the distance caught my eye.  I could see a flash of green when the trees moved in the wind.  It mystified me so much I had to go and see what it was.   Only just over another week to see who the new owner will be. 

That got me going on signs on fences.

More For Sale signs.  Anyone would think houses are worth more than farms, the signs advertising them are so large.  But they do hide a really ugly fence.

Signs of summer at the beach.

I'll be away again this weekend but if anyone from Good Fences passes by, could you link me please.

Mangawhai

Before I reached Mangawhai on Sunday I made a couple of stops but wasn't happy with any of the photos I took.  Isn't it funny, the ideas we get into our heads?  In my case it is, anyway.  Waipu has a lovely long beach with a creek running onto the beach at one end but I never think it looks good unless there is good surf and surfers riding the waves.  When the surf is flat, the whole place looks flat to me.

Langs Beach is the same.  To me, it needs action.  However, just around the corner, where the road goes up the hill and you can look down on this quiet little bay, no waves are needed.  I wonder where those perceptions come from?

Magical Mangawhai as it is marketed, was just that.  Sparkling and gleaming in soft sunlight.  No waves to speak of, hardly a soul around, the holiday makers have gone till next summer.

I suppose the many hooks and sinkers I lost while fishing off the end of that rock have long been buried.  I'd make a funny sight trying to scramble over those rocks to get out to the end these days.  Ah well, memories are good.

 

The estuary entrance is the other side of the rocks. 

 There wasn't much activity there either but a nice spot to sit in the sun and just enjoy being alive.

 Down by estuary I found a lone paddler and these two guys.  Do you think they have a problem?

 

For my next stop I headed out of town, down Black Swamp Road, then through the forest.  In one direction there was a lone surfer, outnumbered by the birds.

In the other a man and little guy were racing along the sand.  I was a fair distance away but could hear his triumphant shout when he won the race.  Happy sound.

I thought then that I'd pop in to see if my friends were at home.  But took one more detour to the end of Pearson Street where, with the tide so far out, even a little person could wade across the inlet with a helping hand.  I could just hear her happy chatter.

Happy sights, happy sounds, happy day.

The old Mangawhai

 Mangawhai markets itself as Magical Mangawhai.  It's a fast growing, popular beach holiday destination.  The area has a permanent population of 1800 people but I swear there must be a holiday home for every permanent resident, with still more sub-divisions being developed.

The Smashed Pipi Cafe is a popular spot for my friends and I to meet occasionally for lunch followed by a stroll through the adjacent art gallery, then perhaps a walk along one of the nearby beaches.  On Sunday Chris and I met Twink and Pete there for a celebratory birthday lunch for Twink.  The weather meant a beach walk was off the agenda but we strolled around the corner to the new Bennett's Chocolate Factory.  Their new premises are very impressive and would at home in any city.

But right next door sits a reminder of the old Mangawhai.  I wonder how long before this prime real estate is sold and these buildings knocked down to make way for progress?

 

 I was amused by the old brick tied to the water pipe to hold it in place:

The Mangawhai dolphins

Mangawhai Beach

Talking about Moko yesterday reminded me about the dolphins at Mangawhai during the winter of 2006.

From April to Christmas of that year I ran a backpackers hostel at Mangawhai. Most of the time during winter it was very quiet, many nights there was just Aidan and me, no other guests. Aidan was a delightful 21 year old who worked at a garden centre that was being developed and needed somewhere to live for a few months. And also someone to cook for him. Looking after the backpackers wasn’t a full time job and I had a few other part time jobs at the same time.

By Christmas, however, it was starting to get quite busy and I was happy enough to scurry back to the farm, acknowledging that making 23 beds a day was just a tad too much for me.

It was a wonderful time, though. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the travellers who passed through. I’d talk to a post at the best of times, so I was pretty much in my element having new people to talk to all the time. We can forget all too easily that there are so many fabulous young people in this world!!

But the most wondrous thing that happened that winter was the dolphins that visited at the beach. I first heard about them from a surfer. This guy could hardly explain to me what had happened he was so excited. He’d been riding a wave and saw a dark shape in the water beside him, on the side closest to the rocks. At first he was worried, thinking he was closer to the rocks than was safe, then he fell off his board as “the rock” shot out the front of the wave, flipped in the air back over the crest of the wave. He got back on his board and sat there, stunned, looking around and sure enough, the dolphin came back but there were at least 6 of them, not just one. He said they were obviously showing him how to really ride a wave.

I started to take my regular walks along the surf beach rather than along the estuary. I saw them a number of times playing in the waves, sometimes only one or two, sometimes quite a gathering of them. They were small, were they children?

One day when I had with me 5 Finnish backpackers we all rolled up our trousers and waded into the surf with them. It was September, the water was freezing but we got quite carried away with the excitement of being there in the water with the dolphins. The taller guys could spread their legs wide enough for these darling little creatures to swim through. Obviously they were enjoying the fun as much as we were.

It was a remarkable, unforgettable experience. Just to see the delight in the eyes of the tourists would have been enough but I know that delight was also reflected in mine.

The cold got the better of me after a while, I was wet up to the waist by then and had just enough control of my senses to realize that the walk back home was going to be extremely cold and uncomfortable. I left the young people there in the water and got back to the house to a warm shower as quickly as I could - and luckily without being seen by too many people.

That was the last time I saw the dolphins. I figured that as the water warmed up they moved on.

But I will never forget the excitement and sheer joy of that day.

What is it about birthdays?

What is it about birthdays that makes you stop and reflect on life? Do you do that? I don't think I used to, or if I did it wasn't for long. I guess when you are younger you are busier, without the luxury of time for such navel gazing. My birthday was on Tuesday but my family and I celebrated over the long weekend, so the reflective mood has been stretched a bit this year.

As a child growing up in Australia it came as a bit of a shock to me when I learnt that the long weekend was actually for Australia Day on 26th Jan, not my birthday on 27th. Here in NZ I live in the right part of the country as the Monday closest to 29th January is Auckland Anniversary Day. It is observed throughout the historic Auckland Province (the northern half of the North Island) and is now generally called the Auckland and Northland Anniversary Day. On 29 January, 1840 William Hobson arrived in the Bay of Islands. Late January must have been a good time for explorers!

The weather is usually good around this time of year and this year was no exception. Oldest son Danny and his family finished their short holiday at Langs Beach on the Sunday and joined the rest of us at Mangawhai where Leone and her two kids were holidaying. Leone's husband, Lez, hadn't been able to join them as he was working during the week and doing the handyman thing, helping his cousin, Goldy, tile a new bathroom at the weekend. Lez and Goldy had done a "I'll help you with yours if you help me with mine" deal when Leone and Lez were renovating.

After all the grandkids had their fill of the beach, youngest daughter Justine was roped into (she doesn't take much roping) helping Jami, Krystal and Georgia prepare a birthday concert for me. Shayde was around but not showing a lot of interest. But when it came time for them to perform she joined in the fun. "The audience" spread themselves on beach towels on the grass under a lovely shady apple tree and the girls danced and sang a song I've never heard before but then I am a bit out of touch with the musical interests of 10 year olds. I think it might have been something from High School Musical. There was something about falling and in a carefully choreographed move Georgia fell backwards into Jami's arms (and someone taught her how to point her toes!). Towards the end of the song the words they were singing inspired Georgia to run forward and pull Michael out of the audience and on to the "stage". And at the end of it the words, "you're one in a million" with the dancers cum singers pointing towards me. Ah, bless 'em.

Cricket had been played on Saturday with a tennis racket for a bat and a large pink squishy ball. By Sunday, however, the players had a tennis ball and a tiny, kid's game sized, cricket bat. After the concert and as the day was cooling down a little, a game of touch rugby eventuated.

I'd been up for cricket but am happy to accept my footy playing days are over. What's more being a spectator is lots of fun. The highlight of the game, for me, was half time when Danny attempted to teach his team of Krystal and Jami a "run around" move and the "scissors", while Michael drew diagrams in a sandy spot, explaining his tactics to his team of Shayde and Georgia.

An early dinner, Danny and family depart for the farm; Justine and Bill pack up the tent and head back to Auckland; Leone, Michael, Jami and I have a quiet night. (I had planned to also return home that night but Leone had presented me with a bottle of merlot. Enough said!)

The next morning I caught up with old friends who live at Mangawhai and we chuckled over a shared memory of the days I kept company with Allan, a lovely man who used to also live there. Maybe I will write about that tomorrow.

So the birthday for this year is done and dusted and now I only have to shake off this reflective mood and all will be back to normal. Well, normal for me.