Now it’s been a few years since we have ventured to Mangakino, probably at least 35years if not more. Mangakino had a bit of a rough reputation in years gone by, but that is now changing.
Mangakino was developed originally as a temporary town to serve the workers who were building the Whakamaru and Maraetai dams after the completion of the Karapiro dam. At its peak in the 1950’s the population reached over 5000, today it has a population of around 1200.
Lake Maraetai is a recreational lake with fishing, skiing and swimming just some of the activities.
There is a lovely large parking area on Matekuri Island which is not really an island, it us more like a headland jutting out into the lake. But swampy areas both sides of a narrow isthmus that the road runs along probably floods at time making it appear an island.
here we are all alone, but it didn’t last long, it became very busy over the weekend.
My niece Fran, her hubby Clive and their two young daughter Bea and Emily have a holiday home here and it just so happened that they were down from Auckland at the weekend. We loved seeing their cute cottage, the girls found a hidey hole in a high cupboard.
We shared a BBQ dinner that evening back at the van.
everyone look the other way!!
Sue & Jeff joined us for an evening on the Sunday before heading back to Putaruru on Monday afternoon. But not before we all got together for a cuppa.
L-R Sue, Bernice, Clive, Bea, Fran holding Emily and Jeff.
Shame I didn’t comb my hair for the photo!! That statement needs a bit of an explanation.
Whilst going through genealogy information with Sue, we came across a photo of me that mum had sent to one of the relations in England. The photo along with others were given to Sue when she was in England 5 years ago. The photo of me is not necessarily funny, but what Mum wrote on the reverse of the photo is. Judge for yourselves.
yes, I know I was cute once…and I thought my hair looked ok!! Knowing me, 5 minutes before the photo was taken I was probably out on the playing field playing bullrush with the boys!
The following day friends Gary & Marg joined us for a couple of nights. We decided to do a bit of exploring around the area to see how much has changed.
Roy got to hang out with Gus in the back seat, the four of us taking selfies and some of us being a bit silly!
Gary & Roy with the Whakamaru Dam in the background.
this is as far as you can go at the Maraetai Dam.
Further down stream from Whakamaru is the local ski club which also has parking facilities for self contained motorhomes so we thought we would check it out for future reference.
top picture is the view from the parking area across the lake and the bottom picture is looking up behind the parking area. Across the lake there is another parking facility however, it is closed at the moment due to logging taking place along the lake front but another one to add to our must-do list.
Back at the vans and Gary discovered an apple tree, so we picked a few to try. And goodness they are great, they fluff up when cooked so we pick a few more and cook up a big pot full of apples. Some we ate with our roast pork belly that evening, and some we had for breakfast, and some I made into a blackberry and apple pie with some blackberries Gary & Roy picked, the rest I bottled.
By Wednesday everyone else had gone, so we think it’s probably time for us to pack up and head off particularly as the weather forecast isn’t that promising. Hmm, where to next I wonder?