Mangawhai

Before I reached Mangawhai on Sunday I made a couple of stops but wasn't happy with any of the photos I took.  Isn't it funny, the ideas we get into our heads?  In my case it is, anyway.  Waipu has a lovely long beach with a creek running onto the beach at one end but I never think it looks good unless there is good surf and surfers riding the waves.  When the surf is flat, the whole place looks flat to me.

Langs Beach is the same.  To me, it needs action.  However, just around the corner, where the road goes up the hill and you can look down on this quiet little bay, no waves are needed.  I wonder where those perceptions come from?

Magical Mangawhai as it is marketed, was just that.  Sparkling and gleaming in soft sunlight.  No waves to speak of, hardly a soul around, the holiday makers have gone till next summer.

I suppose the many hooks and sinkers I lost while fishing off the end of that rock have long been buried.  I'd make a funny sight trying to scramble over those rocks to get out to the end these days.  Ah well, memories are good.

 

The estuary entrance is the other side of the rocks. 

 There wasn't much activity there either but a nice spot to sit in the sun and just enjoy being alive.

 Down by estuary I found a lone paddler and these two guys.  Do you think they have a problem?

 

For my next stop I headed out of town, down Black Swamp Road, then through the forest.  In one direction there was a lone surfer, outnumbered by the birds.

In the other a man and little guy were racing along the sand.  I was a fair distance away but could hear his triumphant shout when he won the race.  Happy sound.

I thought then that I'd pop in to see if my friends were at home.  But took one more detour to the end of Pearson Street where, with the tide so far out, even a little person could wade across the inlet with a helping hand.  I could just hear her happy chatter.

Happy sights, happy sounds, happy day.