Farewell New Friends, Hello Hops!

Monday 12 January

Beautiful bright morning - pottered about, said goodbye to Sally, Guy and the adorable Skye as they headed for the West Coast then hopped on our bikes to follow the Great Taste Trail in the opposite direction.

Headed over the bridge into the heart of Tapawera first, and was confused to find the Gateway to Kahurangi there - even though it appears to be quite a way from the actual Natonal Park. The waharoa had many intricate carvings with a Māori chief on one side and a colonial settler on the other side. Back across the bridge again, the first part of the trail was on roads, following the path of the Motueka River and winding between fields and fields of hop bines. This area seems to feed all of NZ’s many breweries! Flashback to my few days in Tasmania back in 1988, earning a pittance for training the sprouting hops round the bines - worst job ever!

Dropped onto a gravel road, heading towards the hills. We stopped at a farm with three horses (including a very bolshie Clydesdale) and a bunch more hops & decided 10km was enough as we were feeling hungry!

Turned back, took a sandfly infested visit to the river for elevenses & cruised back to Banjo for lunch.

We sat there wondering why there was a gentle sound of popping all around us, like popcorn in a distant microwave, then realised it was the seedpods of the broom bushes in the hedges behind us exploding in the heat and scattering their little dry seeds as far and wide as they could.

Only 2 other occupants at the POP - I spoke to one lady on her bike who said not far after we’d stopped was a hill then a swing bridge, so after a siesta we set off exploring in the Pajero. “Not far” turned into another 10km from the farm and a fairly large & gravelly hill climb & descent over Baton Saddle to Ludlow’s Leap swing bridge over the Baton River which was pretty cool… but I’d have hated the cycle there!

The swing bridge was pretty cool, but my favourite thing out there was the cheeky chappy sitting atop the mailbox of the only house for miles and miles!

Back in Tapawera, Louis indulged in a fresh fruit ice cream while I tried to get rid of our recycling ♻️ Sadly the big skip there had been roundly abused! A woman was walking by with her daughter “this is why we can’t have nice things” she commented. I agreed and said I’d take our recycling elsewhere but she said “no, don’t worry - I’ll take it and pop it in my bin.” What a lovely thing to do 🥰. The battery recycling station was pretty cool and less used!

Then we took a punt on the Shedwood Loop Track for a wee walk, but it was about 100degrees in the shade and very upwards zigzagging so I had a bit of a moment (I blame the keto diet and swapping my knee braces around) before we found the trail heading back downhill to the car!

A quick refreshing dip in a pool in the Motueka River, surrounded by about a million sandflies who hovered behind me like a black speckled veil! Then back to Banjo for indoor dinner and admin!