WHAKATANE AGAIN !

We had booked a tourist cabin on this holiday park, situated right on the beach. Once we had unpacked the car and stretched our legs ( mine were aching from the gorge walk still) we went down to the beach, and there was a oil-black seal swimming along the shoreline, clapping his flippers and bobbing around.




There were also lots of giant seashells washed up and Maori fishermen with huge nets catching whitebait – although some of them said they hadn’t been very successful.



This is Whale Island in the distance ..

The next morning we did the sea coast walk into Whakatane and visited the Farmers’ Market. We bought a huge bag of tangelos, just because we’d never heard of them before, or eaten any.




We discovered that tangelo is a citrus fruit that is a mixture of a tangerine and either a pomelo or a grapefruit. It originated in Asia over 3,500 years ago.

The fruits look like good-sized oranges and have a tangerine taste, but are very juicy.


There was a massive volcano in the distance, jagged edges around a distinctive flat top, and it gradually got lost in cloud as the morning progressed. When we asked we were told it was Mt Edgecumbe...

But it was literally miles away and looked as if it was right there! Our final walk was around a Japanese Garden, with little bridges, purple wisteria and bonsai arrangements.