We knew that well known M.P. Winston Peters comes from there. He was one of a family of eleven and the majority seem to have done well in the law or parliament (which I suppose is also the law).
Anyway, as we were headed south the first thing to do was go across the "longest wooden pedestrian bridge in the Southern Hemisphere". It was built in 1947 to enable children from Whananaki South to get to the Whananaki School.
Once over the bridge we headed along the road then came to a side road. We thought this was the correct way but were not quite sure so when a Ute (flat topped truck) came along I asked the man driving and he confirmed that it was right. We had a short chat then and followed him along the road. Both Doug and I thought he looked like a "Peters" so when we caught up with him a short distance along the road we stopped and chatted. He confirmed that Winston was his younger brother and we spent some time chatting with him until another local drove up and we moved on.
The view towards the beach where we stood chatting.
We carried on down this road to the beach hoping to be able to walk around the coast to the Capitaine Bouganville Monument but the tide was too high (in fact a rogue wave caught me and my shoes, socks and feet were drenched) so we went away from the sea to the actual pathway to Sandy Bay
it is getting late so more to follow tomorrow.
I've seen somewhere a photo of Winston Peters place. It looks isolated but such a marvellous position.
ReplyDeleteMarvellous photos. Quite a bridge!
Just to the left of the top photo is a row of baches and I gather he and other members of his family have places there.
DeleteA wonderful day out
ReplyDeleteJust what is needed in these stressful times.
DeleteAlways love hearing about your walks. What a great bridge :)
ReplyDeleteIt was very narrow - one would have had difficulty passing but there were two passing bays.
DeleteWell, that's a very interesting walk to school, can't be many people who have a bridge built specially for them.
ReplyDeleteI presume it was mainly the Peters family that it was built for as the time would have been right. Prior to that they would have had to row across.
DeleteLooks like a fantastic walk, love the bridge.
ReplyDelete