Our house swap home is right by the beach and most evenings we go for a walk along the estuary. It’s just so nice to be out at 7 or 8 in the evening in the sunshine. When the tide’s out you can walk way out into the estuary and then return by the coastal path and circling the vast grassy expanse of Ferguson Park.
We also discovered a third option the other day – a hilltop walk along the far side of the park with lovely views over our usual route. The colours always seem to be blues and greens – the grass and the mature trees lining the shore and the abundance of agapanthus (supposedly a ‘noxious weed’ but so colourful) in all the gardens.
Val thinks that they always look very purposeful and professional – in stark contrast to the squawking hordes of gulls – as they go about their steady work of combing the sands for crustaceans.
This morning they were standing still in contemplation: ‘weighing up t’ job’ as they used to say when I worked for the Lancashire County Council one summer.
The trees and general look of the countryside are different in New Zealand. It might sound obvious, but as we were walking along the familiar footpath beside the sea, I was looking at tree shapes that would be totally unfamiliar back in the UK. There are the Pohutukawa Trees, some tall palm trees, large bamboo groves and the Norfolk island pine tree, which should interest Val, as she comes from Norfolk. (Oh dear, he should know Lowestoft is in Suffolk..)I bet she never realized it was an island though!
