Whanarua Bay

Expectations are always interesting. Mark and I have often been surprised when the expectations of one are completely different than those of the other. Also, one of us is a glass-half-empty kind of person and the other is a glass-half-full kind of person. I’m assuming that if you know us well, you know who is which………

Eastland is a remote kind of place and tourist offerings are few and far between. We knew we wanted to crash somewhere along the route so had started looking online. The ad said,” Whanarua Bay Cottages are located on the Eastern Bay of Plenty….lovely cottages….in beautiful and secluded bay….two bedrooms….fully self-contained…. have kitchen and laundry facilities, heating, outdoor furniture and BBQ…paddle out and explore the bay in one of our kayaks.” We booked for two nights.  My expectations were primed.

We arrived about 6 PM after our long, wet day of driving around the coast of Eastland. The supposedly idyllic cottage was just off the highway, had no water view, was cold, a little shabby, and did not have an oven (one of our planned dinners was to roast some lamb). We had already paid for two nights and were too tired to push on anyway. Mark tried to light the one source of heat, a propane free-standing heater, only to discover it was out of gas. Thankfully, he was able to swap the tank with one outside on the BBQ and got the heater working. We huddled under a blanket and watched a little TV. Perhaps enticed by the heat, a large cockroach appeared on the wall. Once again, Mark to the rescue. All told, it was a tough end to the day…..though we discovered when we climbed into bed and turned out the light that the main bedroom had a glowing moon and stars on the ceiling.

Thursday, March 18, Mark’s birthday, dawned sunny and clear. The cottage was less depressing in the morning light. We had a hearty hot breakfast and walked down the highway to the steep, single lane access road down to the beach. The beach was tranquil, beautiful, rocky, secluded, sparkling in the morning sunlight. Ahhh…..We hiked back up and visited the macadamia nut farm located just down from our cottage and then went back to the cottage for lunch and to hang laundry out in the sunshine.

Encouraged by the warmth and sunshine, we asked the landlady if we might use a kayak. She had a two-man, hollow-hulled, hard plastic kayak on a small 2-wheeled trailer complete with life jackets. We hauled it down the steep drive to the bay. Hmmm…we had forgotten that the surf and wind tend to increase as the day progresses. Regardless, we managed to launch through some good sized waves and paddle the small bay with no mishaps. At one point we paddled hard out of a rocky inlet where the currents got dicey. Mark, who is not a confident swimmer, was relieved. Looking back where we had launched, big waves were intermittently crashing on the rocks and beach. Fortunately, we located a different place to come in for landing and managed to haul the beast back up the beach and the steep drive. We had just enough time to get to the macadamia nut farm before it closed in order to reward ourselves with chocolate macadamia nut ice cream .

We came home and sat on our deck in the sun and shade, read, did a little computer typing (no internet or cell phone coverage here), and relaxed. Later, we fixed a gourmet birthday dinner using scallions and parsley fresh from the garden behind the cottage.  The house was still warm from the sunfilled day and, choosing from a motley assortment of tapes, we kicked back and watched “Back to the Future” on VHS cassette. The day was good. Fulfillment of my expectations was close enough.