We were quite glad to see the back of Te Puia Springs. It seemed to us to be a story we had read before – Asians buying a business thinking that they know how to run it when they don’t. Such a lot of potential not realised.
Today we had to travel a long way – a whole 12km’s to Tokomaru Bay. How is it that Bruce gets the short drive days? Anyway, our camping spot for the night is beach side and the beach is lovely. There are still lots of rocks, but now we are seeing a fair bit of sandy beach as well.
The weather was lovely after the showery and blustery few days just gone, so we took the dogs for a long walk (about 2.5km) along the beach until we came to the Tokomaru Hotel. This is a grand old building across the road from the sea, so a beautiful outlook. The owners here do realise the potential and would love to have the funds to renovate and make the most of the place. We bought a drink here and relaxed for a bit before heading off for home.
On the homeward journey we walked through the town centre to look again at the old buildings here. It is easy to see that this was once a thriving town – it had two banks, one across the road from the other – a BNZ and an ANZ. Bruce was trying very hard to find a card slot for my BNZ EFT-Pos Card but none of the holes seemed to do the trick.
Once we got back we had a quick cup of coffee and then decided to do a bike ride, so Bruce got the bikes off the back, I pumped up the tyres, and off we went. We cycled back past the hotel and on to see the ruins of the old Shipping Company buildings (pictured above), the wool store (pictured below) and the old wharf.
It looked like parts of the old wool store are still in use although some of the roof is missing and some parts of the walls also.
The wharf is still standing although closed off from public access as it is in a bad way particularly at the far end of the wharf. Nevertheless it is a beautiful structure in a magnificent setting. If the area was not so geographically remote I am sure it would have been repaired and still in use today.
The thing that struck me as we were walking and cycling around was the friendliness of the locals. Everyone waved and tooted or called out “kia ora”, and we felt welcome.
After having a bit of a poke around we cycled back and had a break for a while before joining the others for ‘happy hour’. What a very enjoyable day.
Away From Home NZ 