An Angel In The Wild

Timing is everything in life really- if you miss the boat, your ship has sailed, right. If you go looking for walnuts in spring, wild apples in winter or rock pools at high tide you'll never find them, so I made sure I checked the weather & the tides before we headed off on an adventure to Mangakuri beach in mid February.

I was after low tide so that we could explore the amazing beachscape littered with rocks & rock pools. If you arrive at high tide at Mangakuri, there's no beach to walk on! It's not the beach that's the destination either, it's the whole journey that makes an adventure. And then there's Serendipity, don't forget to invite her along.

There are three ways to get to Mangakuri beach: the main highway south to Waipawa and then out to the coast, via Middle road, or Kahuranaki road. There are two main ways to reach Kahuranaki road: down Waimarama road or along Tukituki road. Either way they both converge at Red Bridge.

We love taking the Tuki road the most as there are so many interesting vistas and foragable possibilities. This hedgerow of hazels is worth a fossick.

No, Rob isn't being car sick!

We've left notes in two letter boxes hoping to find the owners of this property where there's a paddock filled with walnuts, sweet chestnuts and others, but no luck yet.

On the other side of the road there's another old farm orchard that is in slow decline. However there are still three black mulberries and a white mulberry, two huge old avocado trees and a lemon tree. Sadly the Medlar was lost in the cyclone and we don't have permission to access that property either.

But a small amount of fruit arches out over the road from time to time. These mulberries have to be super ripe, but when dark red they taste delicious.

See, here's the stretch.

At the bottom of the road is Red Bridge Coffee (we take our own cups).

Goodness that's a good pile of coffee grounds!

And In The Flowers.

Chad, whose flowers they are, has a gorgeous little shop called Gardenalia in Havelock North too.

From the moment we hit Kahuranaki road there were wild flowers: wild carrot, red clover & chicory everywhere!!! What an unexpected consequence of a monumental flood only just two years ago.

And also plenty of teasel. Have you ever seen them before they dry- such pretty lavender hues.

And the bumblebees adore them.

Wild carrot (Daucus carota) is such a pretty summery wild flower.

Well that was fortunate- we were turning left about now anyway.

The work crew, right on the job and not to be distracted

We heard an interesting story about this road, just the other day. So much of this land was owned by the Williams family from way back. They built homes and made farms and even installed churches.

on the land.

When we were at Apiti we came across Mangakuri Chapel in a book about churches in the wild.

So that was a handy little find to fill in some history. But back to the story of how Sam Williams owned- the area really, and therefore had private access to the beach, well it was a public road in truth but an unsealed one and there were seven gates to be opened and shut to complete the journey, all for a simple family visit to the beach. It's also possible you may have been made a tad unwelcome should you have run the gauntlet. So it was that friends and relatives would make the long trek to visit Mangakuri station over the years. And of course a visit to the beach was always in order and since it's a pretty special spot, various sites were marked out and plans sketched up and baches built all along the beachfront. The seven gate system remained until it was noted that there wasn't a building permit to be seen and that they'd rather pushed the boat out, so to speak in quantity of dwellings. So take down the unauthorised buildings since the fire brigade won't be able to save you or.....I know- how about "we" seal the road and remove the gates. Yes, that should do it.

And so it is to this day...

There's some good dune management going on out here, which is a grand thing.

No wonder there was reluctance to share- it's a beautiful peaceful place.

Such fascinating rocks- so harsh and 'just thrown out of a volcano' looking.

Yet tidal pools abound amongst them.

Lots of fresh looking Neptune's necklace in abundance, so we brought some home to pickle.

Up the beach further we found lots of other seaweeds, useful for making a tonic for the garden.

A few years ago we met this sea rocket (Cakile maritima) up at Little Bay in the Coromandel. We've also found it at Porangahau and now at Mangakuri. It's in the brassica family, so a kind of coastal cabbage and is a useful plant for dune stabilization.

What we surely didn't expect to spot in the middle of the sand dunes was a small half dead, half alive peach tree with ripe white fleshed peaches just beginning to drop.

This quaint little place caught our eye. When we got home we were delighted to find that Tai Rua is available to book to stay. A property that has been in the Boys family for generations. And just happens to be at 207 Williams road. Funny that.

A local meeting place for Friday drinks.

Beach florals.

And then there is: "Waione" has been in the same family for over a century. It was converted into a holiday house from the original farm woolshed in the 1930s"

Interesting proprietary:

Note: Mangakuri is a quiet family beach and people who want to use noisy motor bikes and four wheelers to ride up and down the beach or blast around the sea on jet skis are not welcomed by us, other residents or other holidaymakers. Thank you.

Special conditions:
Pets may be allowed, by negotiation.
Smoking allowed outside only.
House check/administration/wood (Required, NZ$ 70 per stay);

NOTE: Under Kiwi bach tradition you are expected to: Clean the house and do the dishes before you leave. Please bring all your own linen towels/sheets/pillow slips/ tea towels
(Duvet covers, duvets, pillows and blankets are supplied)"

You can book Waione just here, if you fancy.

We found ourselves a spot out of the wind

and made ourselves at home

and stayed for afternoon tea.

Look, no motorbikes, four wheelers or jet skis!

It's passionfruit season so I made a passionfruit, yoghurt cheesecake.

It's quite a journey home again after all that good sea air, so back along the unsealed bit to the turn off to Kairakau takes us passed Castlehill- the number two homestead that belongs to Mangakuri station. This is where our friends Geoff and Christine lived, farmed, brought up their own children, fostered others and had homestays for all kinds of foreign visitors over the 24 years that they lived out here.

And there's the dear little Mangakuri station chapel

Such interesting layers of landscape.

As we headed back in to Elsthorpe- where the turn off options converge, I spotted an apple tree with colouring up fruit and since there was plenty of space to stop we went over to investigate.

Yip, about ready enough to forage a few. I tried one from the ground and it tasted like cider!

With a strange floury texture

that turned out to be almost all watercore. A most unusual phenomenon.

And then a flash of yellow caught my eye and I looked down at my feet to see St John's Wort in full bloom. How remarkable to find such a thing at this end of summer, in the middle of nowhere and so vibrantly happy. Hypericum perforatum is really quite rarely come across here in Hawke's Bay so we were thrilled to discover this one happy plant.