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Noy's 4th Walkabout
Sunday was a day of pleasant surprises! We uploaded the latest stuff to the website and then set of for the Bay of Plenty, aptly named by the Maoris for the fact that all they needed by way of food was plentiful there. And so it was for us! The Rough Guide told us to go to Bethlehem (now where have we heard THAT before??!!) and there we found a winery called "Mills Reef" (Richard immediately thought of the horse - typical!!) where we found the most delectable food and wine and not expensive either! After that we trundled on to Waihi, where the purpose of our visit was to see where Martin, a good friend of ours from Norfolk, was born 60 years ago. Imagine our amazement when, on recounting this story to the lady at the information centre she said "Oh what a coincidence, we had a Mr. Moore from Canada visiting the Anglican Church this morning!" It was only Martin's brother!! We tracked him down to motel in the town and enjoyed an emotional couple of hours; including calls back to Norfolk, UK, to put the two brothers in touch (they don't see each other too often!). We had each travelled about 12,000 miles in opposite directions across the world, drawn by the little mining town of Waihi; we to tell Martin back home what his birthplace was like (he left very young) and John to relive old memories and even to enjoy meeting up with an old friend or two and a teacher now aged 95!
On Monday John headed south for a reunion in Christchurch and we stayed on an extra 24 hours to take in more of the ambience of this lovely little town of which no body seems to have heard. Our site was right next to the beach so first we walked down it to see the little church which Martin's Dad had commissioned 60 years ago (in 1949 actually). We cooked our own lunch (YES WE DID!) on site and tootled off to the railway (closed due to line damage in the recent storms!), the gold mine (big hole in the ground) and Karangahake Gorge (better than Cheddar Gorge on account of the river flowing down the middle of it!). Tomorrow we really are off to the Coromandel Peninsula! Have a nice week all and we'll get back in touch when we can. Lots of love and hugs from Richard & Jill xx
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