From a Cruisy Day of Local Sightseeing in Takaka to Taking on.....................'The Ritchie'

---

A tremendous thunderstorm overnight with all the elements going at once has partially cleared the overcast sky but it still wasn’t brilliantly fine as we surfaced for the day. Still at least that rain had come during the night and not while we would have been hoping to take in more sights around Takaka during the daylight.

We planned a casual day with a short amount of driving locally and then finish the day with dinner at the River Inn, a real old Kiwi style pub, which we had passed by several times over the past few days.

Taking our time during the morning we left the apartment late morning and headed first down to Paton’s Rock another of the numerous seaside settlements that surround Takaka.

The place looked deserted and although there were a good number of houses many seemed to be unoccupied holiday homes. Even those houses that looked occupied didn’t have any humans who were visible as we drove slowly along the road that ran parallel to the beach.

Back to the main road we headed east again but not as far as Pohara and took a short road up to the bottom of range of hills beyond Takaka to take the short Grove Scenic walk, a 40minute loop to some very impressive limestone rock.

Almost all the walks we had done in the past few days had been easy and this one was no different through stands of Northern Rata and huge limestone rocks that had the roots of the Rata wrapped around them.

After only 10 minutes or so of walking through the bush we came upon a massive wall of limestone through which you could make out daylight through a cut between two enormous pieces of the limestone. The evident view ahead drew us on through the narrow gap and we emerged onto a platform well above the car park with a view out towards an estuary which was part of the Takaka River and over farmland.

We were joined by another couple who were as equally impressed with the view as we were. We have met and talked to a lot of other Kiwis on holiday in the various places we have been or on the trails we have taken and there have been a lot from the Bay of Plenty or Coromandel, as this couple were.

Back to the car and we headed into town to fill up with petrol for the long drive to Karamea tomorrow and take a stroll down the main street to check out the shops.

Back home with the weather now improved to the point where we could enjoy relaxing outside our apartment we spent the time just chilling out feeling pleased with all we had achieved in the extra days we had in the Golden Bay.

Then it was dinner time and into the car again and the short drive to the River Inn which is, as you can guess, sited next to the Takaka River and close to the old wharf which still stands.

In its heyday the pub must have been a popular place as Takaka had a small port with coastal vessels calling before the hill road was finished in 1900.Mind you in those days it would have been a very slow coach ride over the hill and then along the valley to Takaka and coastal shipping would have been a more comfortable option and probably quicker from places like Nelson.

The inside of the pub was as we expected, bright red,multi patterned carpet, pool table and darts board and tables dotted here and there in the large expanse of the public bar. The crowd in drinking numbered probably 20 or so and were all gathered near the bar. They were a mixed lot and there was a steady hum in the background from their loud talking and laughing.

We ordered dinner and got ourselves a table away from the bar so we could sit back and observe that there are still pubs in NZ like we used to know 40 or 50 years ago.

Dinner arrived, kid’s burger and chips for Gretchen while mine was ‘The Ritchie Burger’!

The barmaid had laid down the challenge to me after I had asked her what the ‘Ritchie Burger’ comprised of. It had everything you could think of that you would legitimately put in a burger, an egg,beetroot,pineapple,onion,two beef patties etc etc etc with a side of fries. I think she doubted I could finish it off.

It arrived the top of the bun balanced precariously as the waitress laid down the plate.

With the help of a glass of chardonnay(yes I know I should have been drinking a pint of beer or two but I didn’t want to be up all night going to the loo)I cleaned ‘The Ritchie Burger” off which clearly impressed the barmaid when I took our plates back to the bar before we headed for home.

It had been an interesting and fun dinner as we both enjoyed the food and the crowd that ‘entertained us ‘as we watched on in this little piece of New Zealand pub history.

A great way to end our stay in Golden Bay.

---