Outdoors in Otaki

Thursday morning 12th found us driving on SH1 with neighbour Wendy to Otaki, which is a small town in the farming region about 15 minutes north of Waikanae.

The main aim of the expedition (for the girls) was to collect driftwood for the Poo Corner Garden, as Otaki Beach is rich in such treasures owing to the mouth of the nearby Otaki River, which we’d previous;y visited early in January (See my earlier blogs ‘Otaki Forks’ and ‘Back to Otaki Town’). I went along to visit the Farmlands Co-op, in search of availability and pricing options for bulk dog food, chicken feed, and possible materials for the proposed construction of a proper veggie garden and plant nursery. 

I drew a blank as far as the construction materials were concerned, and then returned to the deserted beach where I’d left the treasure hunters. As luck usually has it, the girls found more driftwood than the wagon could carry, even with the loading seats all in the ‘down’ position.

A fairly large proportion of the Otaki population is of Maori culture, and the town is a centre for Maori learning with a large educational college, and street benches, shops and beach decor all reflect the Maori culture.

(Above): Large driftwood tree trunks which have been carved in much detail, much as the plentiful tattoos stand (informally) along the vegetated part of the coastline at Otaki Beach.  

 

(Above): Wendy and Jeanette rest up a bit for some water after their scavenging expedition. In the background are typical little homes, which, as building structures are probably not worth that much, whilst the ground on which they are located are each worth a king’s ransom. The blue one on the right displays a large “Everton” sign in the front window. No guessing as to their favourite sport!

As Wendy was previously a resident in this town, she served as a guide for a tour around the residential and commercial areas of Otaki. We visited a large nursery (‘Strik’) owned by a Dutch family, supplying supermarkets and other seedling, flower and plant retailers.

I was surprised (and pleased) to discover a paint factory in River Road, Enviro Paints, who manufacture and distribute a comprehensive range of paints throughout New Zealand. Their website is professionally balanced and is very informative. Well done, guys.

As one enters the town from the south on SH1, one of the very first places you encounter is a quaint old restaurant/cafe. River Cottage Cafe (which was formerly known as ‘Brown Sugar’) is now run by Rebecca and Taaki Te Momo. Fully licensed, this café  offers evening meals as well as daytime. There is a great outdoor garden in which to relax when the weather is fine. We stopped of for a coffee around their cosy fireplace, and then strolled around their outdoor section afterwards.

(Above): Part of the outdoor dining area in the River Cottage Cafe grounds. Being a Thursday morning, with cold-ish weather which was rather ‘iffy’, there were no takers to sit outside, most preferring the comfort from the log fire indoors.

(Above): The interior of a garage/shed which has been converted into an informal coffee ‘lounge’, with a play area for the kiddies.

(Above): Jeanette and Wendy discuss the effectively of a mirror window in the coffee lounge.

Lavender’s blue

Lavender Creek Farm is situated in Settlement Road, Te Horo near Otaki just about 10 km North of Waikanae along SH1. The farm is owned by Susi and Vaughan, who have two adult children.

Susi is a registered nurse and owns a health food store in Wellington. Her interests are holistic health and healing. She enjoys making products from the lavender oil produced on the farm. Vaughan is a research scientist and he is very interested in growing organic grapes and wine making. The five hectares that they live on includes 7000 lavender plants, grapes, olives and coloured sheep. In 2002 Lavender Creek Farm won the Talga* for best lavender oil.

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,

When I am king, dilly, dilly, you shall be queen.

Who told you so, dilly, dilly, who told you so?

'Twas my own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so.

Call up your men, dilly, dilly, set them to work

Some to the plough, dilly, dilly, some to the fork,

Some to make hay, dilly, dilly, some to cut corn,

While you and I, dilly, dilly, keep ourselves warm.

 

Saturday 11 January 2014: The annual lavender show, and we’re heading North to smell the lavender. Many dozens of spectators (0446) were milling about the property when we arrived.

 
The lavender flowers are harvested by these guys (above) with this very specialised cutting machine, which blows all the lavender flowers into a large canvas bag.

The cuttings are loaded into a large 100 litre stainless steel tray (0448), which is then placed inside a large pressurised steam vessel, and the distillate is cooled down and collected in a smaller vessel (0488) on the other side of the room.

Apparently there is a yield of 300 ml of lavender oil from this large batch of flower cuttings. Mind you, at the price of pure lavender essential oil, it is probably worth the effort. Finally, the spent flowers are discharged from the still and driven away on a trailer to lavender heaven. Below is a shot of the steaming ex-lavender (0512).

Snapping the family sitting in the rotunda (0492) between the rows of lavender in the main lavender field near the distillery.

The estate shop had countless (0449) lavender-related products on offer, including, believe it or not, lavender fudge (0450). Needless to say, I gave that a decided pass.

Familiar figures between the lavender rows (0457), (0454) and (0475).

Surprisingly, lavender is available in many colours, including Alba white as in (0456) as below:

Obviously, many visitors were snapping photos, including these three (0467) which I snapped in one go!

Plenty of bees all over the place, busy as ….

Everything is made as “French” as possible to emulate the Provence region in the south of France where lavender is a way of life. A couple old fogeys (0495) rest in the shade. Less of Frogs, more frog in the throat?

A very French farm avenue (0510), if that’s what French farm avenues look like.

 

* TALGA = The Australian Lavender Growers Association Inc.

Back to Otaki town

After leaving Otaki Forks, we head down the Gorge Road back to SH1, stopping off at the local “Hadrian’s wall”, the stone walls of Shield’s Flat.

Shields Flat gets its name from Irishman Patrick ‘Paddy’ Shields, who, along with his wife Jean and their 10 children, moved to the gorge in 1933 after his pig farm in Johnsonville failed due to an outbreak of swine fever. He kept sheep on the farm and grew potatoes.

Some dry stone walls were built during the Great Depression of the 1930s as a result of a government scheme to provide relief work for the unemployed. Farmers and landowners would pay a worker a few shillings a week for ‘development work’, with the Unemployment Board making up the rest of the wage to 9 shillings a week (equivalent to about $83 per week in 2010). Although much of the relief work was seen as trivial, non-productive and demoralising for the workers, it did provide a means of income when there was little else available.

It is likely the walls on Shields Flat were built by a party of relief workers to rid the plains of greywacke boulders, washed down from the Tararua Ranges by the Otaki River. These cumbersome ‘Hautere turnips’, as they were called, were first sorted and placed in huge heaps before being used to make walls.

Turning right onto SH1, we are soon in the town of Otaki, where a welcome lunch is enjoyed at a streetside restaurant. Then, across the way to visit the olde time style Otaki railway station, which we’d seen almost three years ago when we passed through on the Overlander Express en route to Auckland.

Looking southwards to Wellington on the main (and only) platform of the old time station, which was restored in 1999.

Hi, handsome. We have a hotel in Otaki.

Anyone with luggage for the 4:50 from Wellington?

From here, on the way home, we strolled along the Waikanae/Peka Peka beach, examining some of the huge quantities of driftwood washed out of the sea.

Otaki Forks

2 January 2014: We drive up North along SH1 from Waikanae past Te Horo until we reached the Otaki Gorge Road, which winds up in an easterly direction through the hillsides and lush vegetation of the Tararua Forest Park to the Otaki Forks. Two tributaries, the Waiotauru River and Waitatapia Stream, meet the Otaki River here, where the start of a few tramping trails, a camp site as well as a picnic site can be found.

Boielle Flat, next to the Waiotauru River is the popular picnic area (even with flush toilets). We parked here and then strolled along the river, enjoying the natural sights, a few canoeists and the activities of various trampers (hikers), both local and foreign.

Suspension bridge over the Otaki River  encountered on the way to Otaki Forks.

The view of the Otaki River from atop the suspension bridge is quite breath-taking.

Several water enthusiasts on the Waiotauru River at the swingbridge near the picnic site at the Boielle Flat, struggling a bit at some small rapids.

One of the hikers carrying his black Labrador across the metal swingbridge. Brave doggy and strong sweaty man!

After a short walk uphill through some scenic forestry, we came across the Parawai Lodge:

The spacious interior of the Parawai hut can sleep up to 18 adults on two levels. Warm and dry on a cold wet night.

Back down to the picnic site car park and the return leg to Otaki proper.