Todays Walk

Over the last couple of days, while I have been working out at Westshore, I have been thinking about taking the walk I took today.  I have been pondering this walk as I watch Daniel play on the beach.  I have walked the other way many times but not the way we walked today.  I didnt have as much work to do today (and most of it was done from the car) so after that was finished I left the car at my last drop off for a ladies order and off we went.

It turned out to be a 7.4 km walk :)  I pushed Daniel in the pushchair a fair bit of the way which didnt worry me :)  I got my nice long walk in :)  :) 

in the background of this photo is roughly where we were headed 

It actually turned out to be very interesting.  Lots of boats to see.  Daniel kept asking me to tell him their names :)  He also watched (while sitting on a decorative anchor sitting outside a hotel, bar and restuarant) as a boat was wrenched on to a trailer to be taken away out of the sea :)

I walked over a bridge they have renewed recently and I have to say its a lot nicer to walk over than it was a few years back when I walked every Wednesday in Summer with a large walking group :)  Also it is a lot safer now with railing on both sides of it.  While it always had railing by the sea side it now has railing on the road side too :)  I have a thing about bridges from as far back as I can remember I haven't really liked bridges as well as having a fear of heights I have a fear of falling.  So I know good bridges when I see them :)

I also must say I love the Rotary walk ways they have around Napier - such nice smooth paths to walk along.  They also allowed me to fool my mind on the first part of the walk that these werent the same roads (usually the other side of the road mind as thats where most houses are) I work so hard along usually on my job.  

As we neared the Westshore Sea Scouts hall and surrounding area we happily recalled our recent sleep over there and all the fun we had that weekend :)

go to http://www.napierscouts.org/index.php?page=gallery/16 to see more fun on that weekend 

Next we were treated by seeing a very interesting Maori looking boat (waka).  People were waiting to go on to her.  We wondered if we might be able to.  They were in fact going to go on a cruise on her.  I recalled my trip to Wellington last year and the great display they have of a very similar waka there. At Te Papa Museum it said that these were the waka that the Maori first came to New Zealand on.   Tonight as I researched for this post I found out more about her :)

She apparently was launched in 2009 in Auckland.  She along with 7 other canoes spent a 2 year voyage around the Pacific on a mission cleaning up and protecting the ocean.  She came to the Bay at the start of the year.  More info about her can be found here http://www.kahungunu.iwi.nz/sections/homepage/_baks/TEMATAUAMAUI.htm.0007.0e2d.bak

Later I saw her sailing out to sea and on the way back to the car we saw her come back to the dock.  

When we got to our half way point I allowed Daniel to play for about 40 minutes at a favourite park :)  He made friends with a pair of siblings there and had a good time.  Then we turned around and headed back to the car :)  We stopped briefly at The Iron Pot and Daniel hopped inside it for a moment :)