2/19–Whangarei at lunchtime

After we tour, we realize we have time to go see the Te Matau a Pohe bridge (the “fish hook” bridge) as it opens at noon.  The Bridge was named after the Maori chief who welcomed the first English settlers to Whangarei and is a rolling lift, bascule bridge. 

We walk down the Hatea river walkway, one of the walks we want to do to look at the sculpture trail anyway, to get to then end of the harbor to wait for the bridge opening.  On the way we stop at the public exercise area where Ed does his recumbent bike and I do the leg presses for a bit. Then on to the benches faces the bridge. 

Where nothing happens.  It’s after 12:00 and there is no sign of the bridge opening.  Darn it.  We sit for a while, it’s nice, but we’re hungry and need to eat relatively early since we’ll be going out to dinner a bit early, so we abort and head back toward the Basin. But we keep looking over our shoulders, just in case.  You never know. And lo and behold at about 12:10, there goes that darn bridge!  We turned around and make it to the pedestrian bridge just in time for photos.  That was worth it.  Totally cool.

Then it’s back to the Basin for lunch at Love Mussel. You can guess what their specialty is.  And for Ed, that is lunch.  Green lipped mussels that are absolutely enormous.  I have the snapper burger, which is snapper, lightly crumbed, coated with panko, coconut and lime with a miso seaweed salad right on the sandwich.  Awesome!

I also have a Sauvignon Blanc by Graham Norton – a renowned British comic (yeah, I had to look that one up).  But, the reason I mention it is that, not only was it excellent, it had the most creative label. 

How cool is that?  I loved it.

Lunch done, we find our little Mazda 3 in the lot and head up the mountain ridge to spend the afternoon walking off our lunch in 3 very different Whangarei parks.