As the Sun set over Whakatāne on Friday, June 16th we made our way with our newly acquired rental car toward our BookaBach (AirBnb in NZ). Enroute Sharyl spotted Mata Brewery - where a brief detour got us an assorted fresh 6-pack of locally brewed goodness to fill our fridge.
Whakatāne is home to our friends - Peter, Keturah, and their 17 year old son Leif, and our rental could not be better placed. We are renting the house directly across the street from the Thorsen Ohana. Upon settling into the beautiful rental, there was a knock at our door - Peter, Keturah and Leif had walked the 30 steps to our house carrying a freshly made pot of pumpkin soup, and fresh baked sourdough bread! The Pumpkin had come straight out of their garden, and the bread was to die for. It was so fun catching up, we hadn't seen each other since before the pandemic, and we enjoyed great food and some of the local beers as we talked story. Before long Keturah began slicing up her homemade rhubarb pie (again the rhubarb was fresh from the garden) . . . what a fantastic first meal in Whakatāne!
After a good night of sleep we wandered over to the Thorsen’s for a feast of fresh waffles, and a planning session for the day. River found a stash of old toys and was in heaven as Reef pestered Keturah to read him books. Before too long we all hopped in cars and drove over to the Mokoroa Bush Reserve. The Ngā Tapuwae o Toi trail through the reserve was less than five minutes from the house, and is a Kiwi bird habitat. In fact Keturah works with The Whakatāne Kiwi Trust, monitoring, translocating, and helping to protect the Kiwi population in the region. We even were able to bring a Kiwi tracking monitor on our hike, the radar looking device produces beeps when near a Kiwi (which are nocturnal, so are hunkered down in their burrows during the day), and throughout the hike Leif and Keturah let us know when we were near a sleeping Kiwi - even letting Reef try pointing the monitor himself to see what he could find! Sharyl’s Kiwi education on the other hand included identifying Kiwi poop and checking the smell to determine if the Kiwi who left said droppings was healthy or sick.
After the hike we headed down to Ōhope Beach where the boys got to enjoy the playground for a bit while we had an afternoon coffee, before heading down onto the sand to look up and down the beautiful 7 mile stretch of sandy shoreline framed by cliffs on one side and the natural Ohiwa harbor on the other (far distant) end.
That night it was another fantastic home cooked meal, this time at Peter & Keturah's house, and again with fresh sourdough straight from the oven!
The weather had been pretty rainy, and the following day was no exception - so after a delicious breakfast of "Dutch babies" over at the Thorsen's and a few board games Peter took us on a tour around Whakatāne, showing us the hospital he works at, scenic lookouts, and another beach area called Coastlands on the outskirts of town. The highlight of the tour was the Whakatāne Riverfront which has a paved path running for miles - perfect for walks, runs or bike rides. During a window in the rain squalls the boys hit the playground along the river (per usual there are numerous playgrounds peppered around this town of just 16,000 residents). We picked up dinner at a great Indian restaurant in town, and had another fun night with our friends.
Monday morning rolled around, and with questionable weather predicted we decided to take a short roadtrip to see the surrounding area. Peter was at work, and Leif at School, but we were able to convince Keturah to join us on our drive to Tauranga - an hour away.
Tauranga is apparently the fastest growing city in New Zealand, it sits on a picturesque harbor and is just about 2 1/2 hours from Auckland, making it a fairly convenient alternative to the big city. We stopped in at Love Rosie Bakery one of Keturah's favorite bakeries, and were not disappointed. Everything was fantastic and the taste of the large chocolate chip cookie reminded me of the infamous Mrs. Backers bakery in SLC.
After a long playground pit stop for the boys, we swung by Rocktopia - the local rock climbing gym for a look around, and then headed across the bridge to Mt. Maunganui a popular surf beach and town set at the base of a volcanic cone by the same name.
From there we headed back toward home. While both Tauranga and Mount Maunganui were cool areas, and definitely nice to be close to, both felt too busy for us and it was nice to pull back into the smaller town of Whakatāne an hour later. Peter & Keturah came over and made tacos using fresh made from scratch corn tortillas for dinner- they were amazing- and I gave Peter his first pair of $12 reading glasses (he had tried mine two days earlier and was shocked how much easier they made reading small type - it quickly became a running joke), I’m not sure he was excited about them but I assured him that as a Doctor they provide an additional air of gravitas . . . Not sure if he was buying it!
Tuesday turned out to be the first clear day we had seen in Whakatāne - a town famous for its typically great weather. The sun provided a good opportunity to take a photo of our AirBnB’s awesome hot tub/deck/view here in Whakatāne. Just five miles off the coast is Moutohora Island - also called Whale Island - a picturesque volcanic island which in 1965 was made into a wildlife refuge. As a wildlife refuge public access is restricted to the island, and conservation work has managed to eradicate predators from the island, making it a safe haven for many of New Zealand's bird and plant species. Farther in the distance off the coast is Whakaari or White Island, New Zealand's most active volcano, which in 2019 erupted while several tour operators were on the island, leading to a tragedy which has been documented in a Netflix documentary film called The Volcano. Tours no longer operate to the island, but it is still visible in the distance off shore from Whakatāne - and smoke can be seen faintly rising from the island when the weather is clear enough.
After breakfast we headed down to Ōhope Beach School for a tour.
Ōhope Beach School is a primary school, with students in grades 1 - 6. Grade 1 in New Zealand is the equivalent of Kindergarten in the United States, and begins when a kid reaches the age of 5. The school is situated directly across from the beach, and was renovated in 2018, so all the buildings are only 5 years old.
We were all super impressed by the school, and everyone was exceptionally nice. Classes are 20 students to 1 teacher, and they have two grades together so they can easily advance younger kids on subjects like reading and writing or give older kids more time with subjects they struggle with while not holding up the whole class. The school also has a swimming pool (which looked to be about 2 feet deep), where during warmer months the kids get to play. The principal also let us know that the classes regularly go across to the beach - though they keep the kids out of the water - as an activity to run around, check out the plants and trees and whatnot. We could barely contain Reef who was dying to get on the awesome playground the school had (which included a little zipline and small rock climbing wall). When asked about the school after our visit Reef was very excited about it.
After our school visit we took the boys to yet another playground by the beach and grabbed a fresh coffee from the coffee cart stationed in the parking lot. The playground was backed by a small stream which flowed onto the sand, and after a bit we all headed down to the beach to run around and have some fun on the beautiful sunny day.
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