Mapua Leisure Park

I was taking a nice little Sunday drive down along the coast, ostensibly looking for apple orchards who were hiring pickers, but, not having much luck with that, my mind had turned to other things such as the brilliant sunny day, the green moutains rising to my right and the ocean stretching out off to my left. In htis state of mind, I passed a little yellow sign, the very unhelpful kind that seem to be the main form of traffic signage here. The signs are small (the size of regular street signs) and you have probably a 70/30 chance of reading them as your whiz by at 100 kilometers an hour, the legal speed limit. This of course leaves you with exactly a 0% chance of actually making the turn, even if you manage to read the sign. I have become well praccticed at whipping Uies on the highway and pulling over to read the road signs after missing them (go figure!) the first time around. I often like to up my odds to a 50/50 chance of reading the signs by driving a bit under speed limit. That's my excuse anyway. The roads are narrow and so curvy. You'd have to be crazy to actually drive 100kms/hour like they say. Seriously, I'll be rounding a bend at 65km/h feeling like I'm taking it fast and just around the bend (and directly before the next!) there'll be a sign reminding you of the 100km/h speed limit, just to rub in what a grandmother I feel like already! That's aside from the times when I've approached curves where they actually do have signs posted for lower speed limits, like, say, 55, and I'll look down at my speedometer, which is at 50, and think how I should be speeding up for the turn! Crazy New Zealand drivers!! Back to my story though. The little yellow sign I saw, which sparked that whole outpouring of animosity toward New Zealand road conditions in general, was a sign for Pedestrian Beach Access. And, I'll have you know that I read it on my first pass! Although I didn't make the turnoff and had to pull a Uie... oh well. I pulled in to an area with all sorts of industrial-looking buildings and no visibly good place to park. So I pulled my car off to the side in some weeds up against a fence. Its Sunday, right? No one at this machine-shop, or whatever it is, will care, right? Or notice. I headed down a well-disguised little sandy track to Ruby Bay Beach. As I left the treeline and made it onto the beach proper, I was greeted by a strong blast of wind and a view of continuous whitecaps as far as I could see. The sea was so churned up by all the waves that it was grey and muddy for 100meters out, before it returned to its characteristic aquamarine, although even this was still punctuated by the endless lines of whitecaps. Good thing I wasn't planning to go swimming! In addition to my greetings by the wind and sea, there was also two maps posted for the Mapua Tidal Track and the Mapua/Ruby Bay Walkway. I decided to take the Mapua Tidal Track around the point, where they had the Mapua Leisure Park marked on the map, and into the Mapua Estuary. So with the wind whipping so strongly that my hair stood out horizontally from my head, parallel to the ground, I started out on my walk. I was having a nice little stroll, enjoying the sunshine and the solitude. I had almost reached the point where the estuary enters the ocean before I saw my first person, a man wading along the edge of the surf, wearing a hat, sunglasses and a towel... over his shoulders. Yes, the sign at the trail entrance to the beach had shown me approximate walking times to different points on the beach track, as well as labeled landmarks along the way. However, it had failed to mention that the Mapua Leisure Park is apparently a park for people who like to spend their leisure time in the nude, because as I continued around the corner of the headland where the the leisure park is located, I encountered another naked man walking up from the beach and a gaggle of unclad sunbathers. I felt kind of bad walking by fully clothed, but the view across the estuary to the pine forest-ringed beaches was not to be missed. They would just have to content themselves with my bare arms and the little chunk of my midsection where my top didn't quite reach my jeans...