Reasons to Love Golden Bay
The quickening of spring not only unfurls buds and a sweep of green and tiny creatures, but heralds the re-opening of winter-shut hotspots for lingering, languishing alongside the annual incoming tide of eager and beautiful travelers seeking this new home. The Mussel Inn, The Dangerous Kitchen, The Courthouse Café
Bleak and bitter winter days spent bundled up to the eyeballs stalking warmth by the fire, emerging into day wearing three pairs of socks to face down the wind in a jaunty burst down the beach, thrashing it out on the shore. To return, red-faced and breathless, to the fire. Tukurua / Onekaka Beach
Discovering a new and blossoming adoration for the East Takaka farmscape, fighting the urge to fossick about within Totara forests and scrambling up the steep hillside, scree-bound, goat-like, triumphant. East Takaka Road
Throwing armfuls of energy into new friendships with poetess ladies who dress up daily, who revel in the joys of the dictionary, who care ardently for creatures large and small- hairy, furry, adorable and ugly. Who, kimono-clad, delight in the detail and wrap me hungrily in embraces.
The constant and gentle encouragement of family hands at the small of my back as I struggle and fumble with hills and body-mind improvements. In the midst of it all- what laughter. Gibbs Hill, Wainui, Waikoropupu Hydro Dam, Wharariki Beach
A weekly infusion of hugs, conversation, catch-ups, education and gleeful purchases at the Village Market. Organic produce, handmade screen printed t-shirts, refurbished vacuum cleaners, fresh coffee from a painted caravan, china dishes from Japan in the shape of an unfurling leaf, handmade olive oil soap, lessons in felting, flax weaving, detoxing. Block-mounted photographic captured moments for your wall, to remember. Penny-whistle jigs and guitar melodies wend their way through breath and bone. Takaka Village Market
Above all, the people who populate and migrate, plant firm roots or become seasonal fixtures. Ex-monks turned teachers and psychotherapists. Practicing Buddhist poets. Mothers and healers. Rock climbers and baristas and musicians. Biochemist cycling enthusiasts, wizards on Vespas, horses and carts. Bartender gardeners, sculptors, painters, craftsmen and women. Farmer-rockstars, librarian yoga teachers, a multi-faceted jewel of a pool.
By Hannah Campbell
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