Tinui - Castlepoint: Wind and Sea

It’s Sunday January 11th, just after 10:00 am and the wind is gusting 40+ knots (80 kph). The AirBnB we’re in, is at the top of the hill and the back is exposed directly to the SW winds that have been blowing hard for the past few days. In big gusts, the whole house is shaking and standing on the back deck is tricky, you really have to lean into it. The Emergency siren just started going off to alert the volunteer fire brigade. Don’t know what’s happening but we‘ve had a lot of short power outages all morning. The house is creaking and groaning and I’m glad it‘s a wood frame house that has a bit of flex in it! The wind is supposed to ease for a short while in a couple of hours and we’ll go out and see what we can see then.

We’ve done a alot of walking while we’ve been here. Out to the Lighthouse, around the logoon and back along the ridge behind the town. We took a nice long walk along the beach and explored a bit up the coast and watched the locals harvesting shell fish. Castlepoint is a remote place, 45 minutes to Masterton (the closest petrol and grocery stores). The local shop has a few things, and serves ice-cream that we may get today, if the wind drops a bit. We did get to the local hotel/pub on Friday night for supper. Good beer, good pizza and nice people behind the bar. If you’re ever here, it’s worth a visit.

We’ve been to Masterton 3 times since we arrived. Once to stock up on food once we found out how well equipped the AirBnB was (quite well actually). The second time was for laundry on Friday, again the closest place, and then again yesterday to get petrol because I forgot to fill up on Friday……. The road is up and down, twists and turns, and I think I am actually getting used to it. The reason for the trip to get petrol Saturday was because we decided we wanted to go and see the Tinui ANZAC Memorial Cross, not too far from here. When we went up the first hill, the car started screaming at us that we were low on fuel and only had a 60km range. I thought that if we were going to get stranded by running out of fuel before we got to Masterton, I’d rather is was Saturday than Monday when we have to get to Wellington the catch the ferry to the South Island. Before we headed to Masterton, we did stop and do the hike up to the ANZAC Memorial. ANZAC stands for the Australia New Zealand Army Corp and was formed at the beginning of WW1. They were a major part of the campaign in Gallipoli where 140,000 allied soldiers died along with 87,000 Turkish soldiers. The ANZAC forces suffered over 26,000 casualties and between 8,000-10,000 dead. It was a disastrous campaign that was abandoned and should never have happened. The ANZAC Memorial in Tinui was the first ANZAC Memorial built in New Zealand. 2000 men volunteered to join the war effort from Tinui and most did not return. On April 25, 2016, a local vicar, B.D. Ashcroft who headed the effort to create a memorial, along with 10 men, 7 woman and 24 children made the trek to the top of the Taipos, assembled and erected a cross as a memorial to ANZAC forces who died in WW1. There is an ANZAC service at the top every year. It’s a good hike, and there’s a sign at the start of the trail that clearly states this is not an easy stroll. The 3.1 km trail winds up through fields and forest and 350 meters of elevation to get to the top.

The trail is narrow and steep in places but well maintained and the view from the top is spectacular. The cross there now is not the original one that was wood clad in iron. While that cross was maintained over the years, it had finally had to replaced, and on April 25, 1965 a new aluminium cross was erected that still stands today. The formation of ANZAC is seen historically as the beginning of the shared Australia/New Zealand consciousness. Oh, and we didn’t run out of petrol on the way in to Masterton, we still had 1.5 litres left!

The winds are supposed to get stronger today and tonight but ease by early morning. Assuming the roads are passable (we already saw some trees down yesterday) we should get to Wellington tomorrow in time for our ferry. Of course, that’s assuming the ferry is running, roads are open, etc.

Life in NZ, always an adventure!!!