Part 6...Maramaratotara Bay, aka (to us) 'Name-Game Bay'

I learned the Name Game Song in the summer of 1965 when my cousins came to visit. They were from Minneapolis and very much in touch with the tunes of the day. We were not. Very much in touch with anything that is, from our home in very rural Wakefield. 

Here is the original recording. I remember Gail singing this. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MJLi5_dyn0

We loved it. It's the kind of thing that a person remembers forever. 

Some time back, before we went on our holiday, I was looking over the itinerary that Allie had planned for it. I noticed that we would be spending one day on a bay of the Pacific Ocean with a long Maori name. The name of this bay was even longer and I liked it even better than my favorite Maori-named town, Kaukapakapa, which to me sounds like a fictitious Greek fraternity for dairy farmers. 

I said to Allie when she got home from work that day, "Hey hon, you didn't tell me that we would be seeing Mara-Mara-Totara Bay."  Without batting an eye she asked back, "You mean banana fanna fo fara, fee fi mo ara, Mara, Bay?"  I said, 'Exactly.'  I really love it when our different generations can interact that way. 

Where Allie learned the Name Game Song, I don't know, but what fun we had that night because of our shared knowledge. 

And what a good time we had spending several hours at the beach on Maramaratotara Bay. After a little drizzle in the early morning, the weather decided to cooperate, the surf was gentle, there were amazing shells to collect, and we all just laid back and relaxed. 

I have a load of photos for you today and, as you see them, some fascinating history to share. 

Getting aboard the ferry for the short ride across the harbour.

I don't know what the boys said, but Allie sure got a kick out of it. 

Our first steps on to Cook's Beach, named for Captain James Cook who landed here in 1769. 
You can see rain falling in the distance. We had been delayed a little this morning because of persistant drizzle so we killed time in a cafe until it moved on. 

This picture hints at how the rest of our day turned out. Although the clouds remained, and looked somewhat threatening much of the time, there were always bits of sun making their way through and brightening both the waves and our spirits. 

These cliffs are a mixture of volcanic ash and pumice, laid down by an eruption 7 million years ago. 

Captain Cook named this Shakespeare Cliff because he thought the rock face at some point resembled that writer. 

Here are a couple of short videos that pan along the Cook's Beach and Maramaratotara Bay. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAHMyQKnDxk&feature=youtu.be

https://youtu.be/cAPQZE60Xs4

Click on this next link...this is a replica of the Endeavour, Captain Cook's ship. He claimed this land that he 'discovered' for King George III. He then went ashore and met the Maori already living here, who showed him a river and allowed his men to fill their water barrels. 

http://www.theinformer.co.nz/images/content/endeavour-replica-to-visit-mercury-bay-in-2019.jpg

Some really exciting news is that this ship will be visiting Whitianga from October 21 through October 28, 2019, as part of the 250 year celebration of his arrival. 

You may notice that in the address of the pcture of the Endeavour, (just above) Mercury Bay is mentioned, and that has a story behind it. 

The bay, just off Cook's Beach has retained it's Maori name, but the larger Bay outside it, carries the name Captain Cook gave it, Mercury Bay. He named it to commemorate that on November 9, 1769, he and his astronomer, Charles Green, observed the transit of Mercury across the sun. He had also just observed the transit of Venus while in Tahiti. 

You know, when I think of the explorers of that era, I tend to think of how rudimentary their knowledge was. In truth however, they were actually advanced thinkers. By timing the transits of the planets across the sun from various locations on earth, they could compute the distance from the earth to the sun. There were amazing advances going on and the world's explorers were on the forefront of it all. 

 This beach was nearly deserted all day. We made ourselves at home on a driftwood log. About noon, Allie went off, found a cafe and brought us all savory pies for lunch. Mine was steak and cheese. Not a pasty, but still pretty good. 

 I walked down to that end of the beach and found that there were some swings hanging from tree branches. I thought the boys might like them.

 This is a closer look at that area. The swings are to the left of the picture. It appears that there is a little bit of beach beyond this first outcropping of rock. I'll go see. 

What a great little hidden beach. There weren't many shells on it, but there were countless pieces of shells that I collected. The next picture shows you some of them. I think you can see from the photo how very smooth they are.

 Although the boys never did come down here, I had one friend keeping me company. 

 Here we have two survivors of a shipwreck who have been tossed up on an uncharted beach. They are bravely clinging to life...What will they find when they find the strength to look around?  

 Well, they'll find mum of course, walking toward them. How lucky is that?

 While Jeanne and I had been watching over the castaways, Allie had taken a closer look at some of the rocks fallen from the cliff over time. This one shows wave action.

I love those hills.

 Those clouds look ominous...

 This is what the larger sky looked like though.

 He looks as happy as if he had dug that hole at Hot Water Beach.

 I dug it with this, Grandpa

The official picture for posterity.

 Heading home. We have climbed up from the beach and are walking down to the ferry landing at the end of this street. 

 Almost back to the dock.

(This might be my favourite photo of the post. This is the kind of picture I would have looked at in a book about the south sea islands as a kid. Never in my wildest imaginings would I have believed that I would be seeing this in person, and yet...)

A fishing boat captain (or crew) cleaning the day's catch for the fishermen.   -djf 

UPDATE: 

I published the post you've just read on my Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon, Jeanne spotted some visitors just beyond our back yard fence. I took some photos and sent the best of them to Jeanne and Allie, who suggested they might make a nice follow-up to my comment, just above, about reading and dreaming of the south seas as a kid. I agreed, so here they are. When they finally flew away, I realized that there were three of them.