Thursday 5th of March - And still it rained

A ‘weather warning’ was issued overnight with heavy and continuous rain in Northland with some low level flooding expected in areas.

We loaded the car in the rain whilst watching another couple take down their tent and shove it, soaking wet, into a large plastic bag, not good for tents.

We drove north again retracing some of the journey from yesterday and the forest looked a luxurious green which is not surprising after all the rain.

We were going to use the ferry from Rawhene to cross the inlet and as we had to wait for forty five minutes for the next service, Jennifer offered to get some coffee from a shop near where you parked whilst waiting for your departure. She returned holding two tins of pre-made coffee, I say pre-made as on the tin it said ‘Made in Taiwan’ and imported by a Wellington based company. It also said on the tin that it was to be stored in a cool place and drunk chilled for best taste. There was nothing on the tin about heating it up for several days and serving it hot. We threw most of it away and Noel has kept the tin for further investigation.

The ferry arrived and appeared to be operated by only one guy, god knows what would happen should he have an accident en-route.

Needless to say the rain was getting stronger and so we sat in the car and had some ham sandwiches and watched the cloudy and wet scenery.

By mid-afternoon we arrived back in the familiar territory of Ahipara and then back via Kaitaia till we arrived at Taipa.

Sheila prepared a nice salad for dinner and then we took off to visit the Swamp Palace cinema which was holding its annual ‘World Famous International Film festival, for the last time. We saw a film with Meryl Streep as a Catholic nun in a school, who suspects one of the priests of foul deeds with some of the boys in his care. It was a well made film with good acting but a difficult subject to cover and in the end it was depressing in that the priest was promoted out of the way to avoid problems. There are shades of real life here.