A trip to visit the Waimate Mission house.
The visit was made more enjoyable by the fact that we were the only visitors at the time and that the lady in charge gave us a very enjoyable and informative talk on the history of the place. When we visit such places I can only be amazed at the courage of the settlers particularly the wives. They endured a lot of hardship with clearing of the land and setting up home. Many of the women found the lack of feminine companionship hard to bear.
The gardens were superb and the trees that had been planted in the early days of the mission had grown to great maturity.
Charles Darwin visited the mission in 1835 and was much impressed by the houses, gardens and fields that had been cleared for agriculture - a back breaking task as the ground was full of volcanic rocks.
We had intended going on to Kaikohe to meet Rob for lunch but he called to say that he had to go down to Dargaville so we headed back to Paihia for lunch. The Queen Elizabeth was moored in the bay and the town was very busy with the visiting passengers. We got a coffee and sat by the wharf for a while before returning home after our big day out!!
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