Down the road to Tangimoana

A long weekend away at a beach camp seemed like a good idea, so good in fact that two vans arrived on Wednesday, and two others, including ourselves arrived on Thursday.  We might as well have an extra long weekend away, we reasoned.  While the others went off on a shopping jaunt on Friday morning we decided to explore the small seaside village of Tangimoana, as we had driven past the turnoff to this area many times.   Driving down the road to the settlement, lined with cabbage trees and roses, we came across a set of magnificent brick gates.  Wonder what grand establishment lies up this drive? 

What’s up here?

And there it was, a beautiful large country home set on rise, surrounded by lovely gardens.  We were sure that this house had been the venue for many  fashionable fine dinners and afternoon teas with the elite of the area, and perhaps the house boasts a ball room as well.  Sadly, no-one came to the gate to invite us in to look around, so we snapped our photos and drove away.

  A fine country homestead

Tangimoana is a small seaside settlement, which seems to have fallen on sad times.  It boasts a school, boat club and health clinic, but the corner shop has long ceased trading. 

We drove down to the Rangitikei River Boat Ramp and were amazed to see masses of driftwood piled up an adjacent stream over 1km from the beach.  The huge logs attest to the power of the sea on this coastline.

Driftwood piled up in the top reaches of the estuary

There we noticed a white faced heron delicately picking his way amongst the reeds while looking for his next meal.  These birds stalk their prey as they creep stealthily, and strike at  whatever may may swim nearby.

  White faced heron

There is no vehicle access to the beach, as we found out.  This part of the coastline is now the Tawhiroa Scientific Reserve, and  the sand dunes, fauna and wildlife are all protected.  This last remnant of coastal wilderness stretches 206 kms from Hawera in the North, through Tangimoana and down to Paekakariki in the south.  Sand is carried inland by the wind, trapped by sand binding plants  which encourage the growth of dunes as the plants grow.  The dunes trap rain and ground water and these damp hollows and estuaries become home to rushes, sedges and other rare wetland plants.

We were happy to just read the signs and leave this important Scientific Reserve to itself to get along with slowly growing and evolving.