A trip to Wellington

 It turned out to be quite serendipitous that I went to Wellington as my father was in hospital when I got there. Nothing too serious and he is home again now. I was able to take Mum up to the hospital and home again while I was there.

When we into Whangarei yesterday, we were approaching the lifting bridge which is called Te Matau a Pohe. It translates as the “fish hook of Pohe”. The red light came on and we stopped and waited to see what vessel was sailing underneath, but nothing appeared, so we have no idea why it went up. I took a picture of it up. The yellow bits at the bottom are the rams that pushes it up. They are a lot bigger than the photo implies.

Lifting bridge at full height.

This next bit was taken from the Whangarei District council website. The picture was from the Ross and Davies Travel Blog.

Pohe is the chief who welcomed the first English settlers to Whangarei. He was very skilled in manufacturing fish hooks using traditional materials and styles. His hooks were so practical, many of the settlers used his hooks in preference to the standard English hooks made of steel. Pohe was also instrumental in building bridges between the two cultures during the first years of English settlement amongst Maori. Pohe used his ranking to protect many of the first settlers from being killed.

Te Matau a Pohe

Yesterday we went to check out Ruakaka Beach. We have decided to go there after Easter, when Abbey has gone home.

Ruakaka Beach