14.08 Taumarunui: A Forgotten World Adventure or Two

8.A Pilot Cart Heading into Another Tunnel on the Stratford-Okahukura Line

When Jean and I lived in Te Awamutu in the first half of 2013, in her work for the Waikato District Health Board ('WDHB') she traveled to two outlying clinics. One was in Te Kuiti, about forty minutes south of Te Awamutu, and the other in Taumarunui, about two hours south (at least for foreign drivers like us). As I've reported in a previous post, Taumarunui was once an important railway and lumber center. With the closure of numerous lumber mills and with the electrification of the North Island Main Trunk Railway ('NIMT') the town's economic significance dwindled and its population dropped from around 6500 in 1986 to around 4500 in the 2013 census.

We traveled back to Taumarunui, Te Awamutu, and Hamilton this past weekend to visit former colleagues of Jean's and to visit friends of ours at St John's in Te Awamutu. We had very pleasant visits. We were also drawn to Taumarunui by the desire to experience an adventure or two on offer from a Taumarunui-based enterprise called Forgotten World Adventures ('FWA'). The enterprise began operations in 2012 and now offers 'rail, river, and trail' adventures in New Zealand's King Country. 

During New Zealand's Land Wars in the 19th Century the King Country served as a redoubt for the so-called Kingitanga Movement, which established (among other things) what has become an enduring monarchy among the Māori iwi (tribes). The King Country served as a redoubt because of its extraordinarily crumpled and vexingly complex topography. I hope the photos that follow begin to suggest the topography that thwarted military movements against the Māori and hindered the completion of railway lines in the King Country. The NIMT was opened in 1908. The Stratford-Okahukura Line ('SOL'), with its 24 tunnels in 89 miles (144 km), was completed in 1932. The FWA rail adventures operate over the SOL, which traverses some of the most inaccessible regions of the King Country.

8.B King Country (Sawtooth) Ridgelines

8.C A King Country Sentinel Tree & Cattle Below

8.D King Country Isn't Rolling Country

8.E King Country Bush and Pastureland

8.F More King Country Piled Topography

Today the King Country along the SOL is either pastureland or what Kiwis call 'bush'. Bush is wilderness, which in this part of New Zealand is forested. Had we taken a so-called '20 Tunnel Tour', I understand we would have encountered a good deal of bush west of the point where we disembarked. A map depicting the routes of Forgotten World Adventures ('FWA') appears here.

Jean and I participated in what FWA calls its 'Rail & River Run', which entails both a 10-tunnel journey on the SOL and a ride up or down the Whanganui River on a jet boat. The FWA rail ventures entail customers traveling in former golf carts. The carts, imported from the state of Georgia (USA), are equipped with flanged wheels of steel or of heavy-duty plastic. Forgotten World Adventures favors the use of plastic wheels because they are quieter (and it has retrofitted carts accordingly). The carts come in two-person and four-person versions. Here's a photo of the one we rode from Okahukura. 

8.G Our Forgotten World Adventures 2-Person Cart

As you might imagine, those who venture out on the SOL thru Forgotten World Adventures do so not solo but in the company of what I'll call a 'cart convoy'. In the lead is a 'pilot cart' run by an FWA guide, who is in charge of the convoy. The guide is responsible not only for the convoy's safe transit. She or he acts as a jack-of-all-trades.  Among other things, our guide, Maree, was responsible for clearing away windfall on the line, shooing away sheep that had somehow managed to enter the right-of-way, and serving tea at an enroute halt. Not least, Maree was a congenial, knowledgeable and attentive guide who helped make ours an instructive and memorable journey on the rails. At each halt she had stories to tell about places or people that we, her fellow rail cartwheelers, had likely never known of, much less forgotten.

8.H Waiting for the Entire Convoy to Arrive at a Halt

8.I Maree Wheeling Her Pilot Cart, Leading the Convoy Towards a Tunnel

8.J Cartwheelers Inspecting a Water-Challenged Tunnel Portal

Our convoy of cartwheelers included a couple with their young son from the Isle of Jersey, who like us were booked for the Rail & River Run. Additionally about a dozen ladies, teachers from Taumarunui, were out on a ten-tunnel group venture to celebrate the end of the school year. Here are some more photos of the line we all traversed from Okahukura. 

8.K Narrow Rail and Road Rights-of-Way

8.L Cattle Browsing (Above) / Outbuildings (Below) 

8.M Typical Open Deck Girder Bridge on the SOL (Perspective Above/Detail Below)

8.N Typical Ballast Fouling at a Tunnel Entrance

8.O A Vegetation-Challenged & Slip-Challenged Tunnel Entrance

8.P At a Halt in a Tunnel

8.Q Brick Lining (vs Concrete) Typical of Most
Tunnels that the 10 Tunnel Convoy Traversed

8.R Tangent CWR Track on the SOL

KiwiRail suspended service on the Stratford-Okahukura Line in 2009, mothballing the line. In 2012 it elected to lease the line's use to the Forgotten World Adventures enterprise. KiwiRail and its predecessor enterprises must have invested in the line right up to its mothballing. The evidence of this is in the continuous welded rail ('CWR') sections, Pandrol fittings, and even occasional concrete ties (sleepers). The engineering challenge to FWA is simply to keep the line open, especially clearing away slippages in the winter season, when ventures out on the SOL aren't (yet) offered to the public. 

Hopefully, Forgotten World Adventures will prosper. The enterprise seems well organized and thoughtfully designed. It has created about two dozen new jobs in Taumarunui. All things considered, the King Country suffers more industrial archaeology than would be desired. Some of that archaeology along the SOL is a reminder of what can happen when enterprises loose their vitality or purpose or capacity to serve economically.

8.S Cartwheelers Disembarking to Inspect
 Matiere Station Remnants

8.T Mine Office at an Abandoned Coal Mine

8.U Two More Tunnel Approaches

Our convoy of carts came to a last stop at a place called Tokirima, where Forgotten World Adventures has established a picnic area. An FWA associate from Taumarunui had driven out and prepared a picnic, where we cartwheelers were afforded the opportunity to eat fresh sandwiches of our own confection. Available ingredients included ham, cheese, fresh greens, relishes, and so forth. And of course there were a variety of beverages. An incoming FWA bus brought customers who would cartwheel it back to Okahukura, after themselves having lunch at Tokirima. That same bus took those of us on the Rail & River venture to a spot on the Whanganui River where we met the jet boat that would take us back to Taumarunui. The teachers who'd been on the 10 Tunnel tour rode back to Taumarunui by bus, after we'd cast off on our way upriver. Our river pilot, Ron, from time to time stopped the boat to tell us stories about the people who'd used the river and the places that cosseted its waters. He was a superb pilot and storyteller.

8.V Jet Boat Arriving for Return Journey to Taumarunui on the Whanganui River

8.W Jet Boat Easing In

We had great experiences on the Rail & River Run and would highly recommend it to others. For those not desiring a jet boat ride, Forgotten World Adventures offers plenty of other rail cartwheeling options through the beautiful King Country of the North Island.

Merry Christmas,
Tim (& Jean)

PS During our brief visit to the central North Island we ambled around the Victoria Street district of Hamilton. The city has what may one day be an internationally recognized botanical garden (as I briefly described here). And in that vein Hamilton deserves more recognition for its parks. Here below are two photos I took in the park domain between Victoria Street and the Waikato River.

PPS On 2 April 2017 Timsvideochannel1 (no connection with me) published on YouTube a video entitled 'Rail carts through the Forgotten World', which depicts snippets of travel on a Forgotten World rail venture from Tokirima to Okahukura.

PPPS on 28 November the online New Zealand Herald carried an article about Forgotten World Adventures' fruitless effort to find a new general manager, whose pay would be up to NZ$150,000 per year.

8.X Greenery in Hamilton

8.Y Another Big New Zealand Tree

14.07 Napier: Art Deco Capital of the World?

7.A Southward View of Marine Parade, T&G Building and Masonic Hotel to the
Right and Municipal Bandshell and Pergola to the Left

 A few weeks after arriving the first time in New Zealand in 2013, Jean and I took our first trip beyond our new Kiwi 'home'. We traveled to Napier (See Blogpost 13.03) upon the recommendation of friends. We weren't disappointed. Art Deco and wineries are the two magnets that draw tourists to Napier. 

What can I say about Art Deco a la Napier now that we're back, this time for a three-month stay? I'll confine myself to a few remarks. There are several books and guides available to Art Deco aficionados, as a viewing of Amazon.com or Fishpond.co.nz would suggest. Whatever the guides say, I'll say this: There is no one Napier building in Art Deco style that would compel a visit, perhaps not even by an aficionado. 

About a half year ago we were in Spain, which (as it happens) is on the opposite side of the globe from New Zealand. While in Spain we visited Barcelona, which has adopted the still-under-construction La Sagrada Familia Basilica as the city's icon (A Kiwi serves as the basilica project's 'Executive Architect'!). To visit Barcelona without seeing the basilica (at least on the first visit) would be almost crazy or criminal. But while I have my Art Deco favorites in Napier, I've yet to encounter a building here that it would be criminally crazy not to see.  No one building, Art Deco or otherwise, in Napier is extraordinary.

7.B Intersection of Emerson and Dalton Streets in Napier's CBD

The second thing to be said about Napier a la Art Deco is this: Napier's assemblage of buildings and Napier's built environment in toto constitute Napier's architectural attraction. That assemblage and that environment are extraordinarily pleasing. In essential ways, contra La Sagrada (for example), the Art Deco buildings in Napier are quite ordinary. But--and I mean this as a high compliment--the ordinary in Napier has been done extraordinarily well.

7.C Napier Municipal Theatre Tennyson Street Facade

7.D Pergola in the Beach Domain with T&G Building on Left across Marine Parade

7.E Art Deco Centre, 7 Tennyson Street 

7.F Art Deco Centre Fenestration

Thirdly, Art Deco is hardly the only modern (post-1900) style that's attractive. It's one of several modern styles which recognize that buildings can't be reduced to mere function anymore than men and women can be considered mere machines. Buildings, like people, aren't machines. Yet Art Deco embraces modern technology. It does so, I would argue, while also supporting human longings for beauty, meaning, and remembrance. Hence, within Art Deco there is an allowance for tradition. Art Deco comes in stylized variations like Spanish Mission and Stripped Classical, or even (I suppose) a subdued Italian Renaissance style. Moreover, within Art Deco there is a fondness for ornamentation and bold colours, which vivify Napier's urban palette (despite some contemporary clutter).

7.G Stripped Classical vs 'Plain Vanilla' Art Deco
along Hastings Street, Napier

7.H Stripped Classical at 58 Tennyson Street

7.I Stripped Classical with Maori Motifs at 100 Hastings Street

7.J 61 Tennyson Street in Italian Renaissance Style

7.K Hastings Street Facade of the Criterion Hotel in Spanish Mission Style with Clutter at Pedestrian Level

7.L  Masonic Hotel, Tennyson Street Facade

7.M Facade Detail at Masonic Hotel Entrance

7.N Masonic Hotel, Marine Parade Facade

Fourthly, the assemblage of Art Deco buildings in Napier has survived because the community has worked to preserve its treasury of buildings and to enhance the environment of Napier. A community-based Art Deco Trust was formed in 1985 to preserve Napier's Art Deco heritage. Of the Art Deco buildings still standing in Napier over 110 are found in the CBD ('Central Business District'), according to an inventory published by the municipality and the Art Deco Trust. Two Art Deco buildings are found in Napier's Taradale district and six in the Ahuriri district. Twenty-four Art Deco buildings were destroyed before Napier's preservation efforts took hold.

7.O Ellison & Duncan Building, Ahuriri

7.P Post Office Building, Erected in 1930 and One of the Few CBD Buildings to Survive the 1931 Earthquake

Fifthly, it's perhaps understandable that locals might overstate the significance of Napier's Art Deco inheritance. At times Napier has billed itself as the 'Art Deco Capital of the World'. In 2006 interested parties formally launched an effort to have Napier designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its Art Deco treasure. That effort failed in 2011. In merely worldly terms, Napier may not be at the top of the heap. Anyway, what would 'capital of the world' mean in the context of any architectural style?

Sixthly, it's remarkable that a New Zealand town, far from Paris, where Art Deco originated, should in fact be one of the very few places that has an assemblage of Art Deco buildings that rewards a visit. Napier may not be 'The Art Deco Capital of the World' but it is an Art Deco capital. It might be argued that if the earthquake of 1931 hadn't happened, Napier would never have acquired its treasure of Art Deco buildings. But the earthquake happened and by dint of human determination the town's CBD was rebuilt. By design Art Deco prevailed in the rebuilding. Napier has every cause and right to bask in its Art Deco glory.

Finally and no surprise, Napier has turned its circumstance to its advantage, to be sure, luring tourists because of its Art Deco treasure. Yet I sense that, aside from the inevitable commercializing of circumstance (a human trait not to be despised), the community genuinely enjoys celebrating its Art Deco heritage. The celebration is good because, thanks be to God, life can be good. Following below is a YouTube video sales pitch for Napier's Art Deco Weekend, which has been celebrated each February for somewhat over twenty-five years. I've included it in this post not least because it provides interior glimpses I'm otherwise unable to provide. And I hope it suggests the locals, as well as visitors, have fun a la Art Deco.

In a subsequent blogpost I hope to share images of my favorite and not-so-favorite Napier Art Deco buildings. In the meantime and in any event...

Warm regards,
Tim (& Jean)

7.Q Entrance Details, Gladstone Chambers, 50 Tennyson Street

7.R Hawke's Bay Chambers, 78-82 Emerson Street

7.S Former State Theatre in Spanish Mission Style and Apricot Splendour, Dalton & Dickens Streets

7.T 'Spirit of Napier' Statue in Napier's Marine Parade

14.06 Ocean Beach & Havelock North: Findings & Discoveries

6.A View from Ahuriri (in Napier) towards Westshore

Often in life we are searching. In searches there are three possible results. We don't find what we're looking for. We do find what we're looking for. Or, we actually discover something, great or small, something we weren't precisely looking for but which we found in spite of or, perhaps, because of our search for something else. Successful searches, in other words, yield findings and, more rarely, discoveries. Discoveries come with a measure of surprise.

The photo above seems to hold no surprises. It was taken from a shore in the Ahuriri district of Napier, where Jean and I are currently living. From the photo you might deduce that this location isn't particularly swimmer-friendly. Indeed, it isn't. Napier's main waterfront is little better. It has what's called a 'shingle beach'. The photo below shows what that's like. The shingle beach and the reportedly treacherous waters immediately offshore insure that people don't come to Napier to swim or surf.

6.B Typical Beach Aggregate along Napier's Waterfront

Because we've been anticipating at least one visitor who would want to go swimming, Jean and I decided we needed to search for a swimmer-friendly beach. Last Saturday we headed south out of Napier to a place called Ocean Beach, reported to have a broad and long sandy beach. As the crow flies, Ocean Beach is about thirty kilometers (or eighteen miles) from our apartment in Ahuriri. The drive there without pause took us somewhat over an hour. The photos below depict some of what we saw at the beach.

6.C Motu O Kura (Bare Island) in the Distance and Surf and Sand Close-at-hand

6.D Driftwood at Ocean Beach

6.E Bringing a Surf Boat Ashore with Cape Kidnappers Headlands Beyond

6.F Footprints and Surf at Ocean Beach

As the photos suggest, Ocean Beach wasn't crowded. There were no sunbathers or swimmers, just some surfers and walkers. As is seemingly typical in New Zealand, a surf life saving club is housed at the beach, affording a measure of accommodation and safety to visitors. I suppose most people seen at Ocean Beach are visitors. The village there appears to have no more than a score of cottages (or 'bachs' in Kiwiese). Yet, according to Surf Forecast.com, Ocean Beach can become crowded. 

The trip to and from the beach had its own unanticipated compensations. Here, below, are some photos of the Maraetotara and Tukituki hinterlands along Ocean Beach Road, which connects Ocean Beach to the world. We passed a number of vineyards and sheep stations. The country was and is a bit dry for this time of year, but no matter. New Zealand is always beautiful.

6.G A View from Ocean Beach Road

6.H Another View

6.I A Countryside Beauty

6.J Te Mata Peak in the Distance; Tukituki River in Foreground

6.K Hills and Brush

When Jean and I turned back from Ocean Beach, we elected to take a slight detour into the town of Havelock North,  a suburb of Hastings. Havelock North, Hastings, and Napier all take their names from men prominent in 19th Century Imperial India. You won't see a statue of Henry Havelock, the town's namesake, anywhere in town (You could travel to Trafalgar Square in London for that). Instead the town's memorial green is dedicated to the town's war dead, more than ever remembered in 2014, a century since the onset of WWI. New Zealand's participation in that war through ANZAC (the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) is solemnly remembered every April 25th (See Blogpost 13.16) and is invariably remembered in New Zealand towns and cities with memorials of one sort or another.

6.L Memorial Cenotaph and Christmas Tree, Havelock North

'Havelock North Village', as it's called, serves as the prosperous town's central business district ('CBD') or downtown. Unusual for Kiwi towns is the prominence of one of its churches, St Luke's Anglican. Its general appearance reminds me of churches I've seen in Sweden, of all places.

6.M St Luke's Anglican Church, Havelock North

6.N St Luke's Green

6.O Tower & Buttressing, St Luke's Anglican Church

Two aspects of the St Luke's edifice deserve comment. Firstly, one doesn't ordinarily see New Zealand churches with towers. Unless a congregation has the means to erect a highly earthquake-resistant tower, a tower won't be erected. Substantial towers are mostly found on cathedrals (See here, for example). St Luke's is an exception. Secondly, the church building is exceptional in having buttressing. Given the frequency of earthquakes in New Zealand, one wonders why more buildings, sacred or secular, don't incorporate buttressing.

Before leaving Havelock North we patronized a shop or two and a craft fair being held in the CBD. Currently there seem to be numerous fairs in and about the Hawke's Bay Region, probably because of the impending Christmas holiday. On our way out of town we discovered a 'figgery', Te Mata Figs, where we purchased dried figs and a walnut-and-fig log marketed as 'salame di fichi'. Apparently the mild, comparatively dry climate of this part of New Zealand favors fig growing, not to mention a wide variety of other fruits. The Hawke's Bay Region is one of New Zealand's primary fruit growing regions. A review of New Zealand's 'fruit-growing possibilities' may be found here.

The one possibility precluded in our fact-finding trek to Ocean Beach was the possibility of a sand beach near Ahuriri. Sunday, following our outing to Ocean Beach, on a walkabout Jean and I discovered a sand beach in Westshore, the neighborhood just visible across the waters in the lead photo (6.A), above. The beach doesn't have the sunny sand colour of Ocean Beach, nor its extent, nor its wild setting. But it's within walking distance of our apartment and it, too, hosts a surf life saving club. We had traveled some distance only to discover something suitable virtually right under our noses. Nonetheless, we'll probably return to Ocean Beach, at least once, just as we've returned to New Zealand. The views are great and perhaps there's something to be discovered along the way.

Warm regards,
Tim (& Jean)

P.S. This past Tuesday Jean went the distance to see patients in Wairoa.  She and others employed by the Hawke's Bay District Health Board ('HBDHB') were flown to the clinic and small hospital that the HBDHB maintains in Wairoa. Here's a picture of the Air Napier plane in which she flew, providing her first experience in what I call a 'puddle jumper'. The experience in the air and in Wairoa was a good one.

6.P Air Napier Piper PA31 Navajo

6.Q Air Traffic Control Tower @ Hawke's Bay Airport