Last Saturday was a gorgeous, warm (for winter) day, so Gayle suggested that we take our lunch out to Gore Bay and have a picnic. What a good idea! Since it was high tide and therefore not good for beachcombing, we decided to try to find an old Maori graveyard that a local farmer pointed out to the boys last spring. We didn’t find that, but we did find an early European cemetery, dating back to the earliest days of settlement in this area. The most recent burial there was 19 years ago. There are around 25-30 graves, only about 1/3 of which are marked. It was a beautiful spot for a cemetery–on top of a hill overlooking the Jed Estuary and Gore Bay, and so peaceful.
Getting ready to go
To go to the cemetery, we had to cross the mouth of the Jed River/Buxton Creek. It was only an inch or two deep, but with it being high tide, there were often several inches of water. Seth ended up carrying the two youngest over by himself!
The trail from the beach to the cemetery was fun!
The Jed Estuary, with an old woolshed on the far side, and Gore Bay in the distance.
This is all that marked one grave.
All that’s left of the gate to the cemetery.
After exploring the cemetery, the boys worked on punting their “raft”–a large forked log–around the lagoon at the place where the Jed River and Buxton Creek flow into the sea. They had great fun learning to maneuver it around, and then pulled it out so it will hopefully still be there next time we go.
The boys reenacted Hone Heke, a Maori chief in the 1840s, who chopped down an English flagpole on a hill overlooking present-day Russell, four times.
A hut that someone built out of driftwood.
Daddy helped pull the log to a deeper part of the lagoon.
Pulling the log out
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