Mission accomplished

Wednesday 2nd. When we told various Kiwis that we were staying in Porirua, they all said: 'Why there? It's an industrial town!' Well, in a way it is, there's a big chocolate factory that we can see from our window but it's also a suburb of Wellington. Plenty of houses and shops but where we are staying is right on the edge, once again on the side of a hill. But the real reason for coming here is that Brigid's godfather is buried here somewhere. Back in the 60s, someone, a friend or relative, sent a photo of Porirua with an x on the back showing a tree near to which he was buried. The photo also showed the mental hospital and where the person lived. Now Brigid has had this picture in a box and she was looking at it before we came away. But, could she find it when packing? No! So, we have come here to search for his grave. Unfortunately, although Brigid has a clear picture of the location in her mind, it has never stacked up with Google maps. The hospital isn't in the right place. 50 years have passed and things have changed. Well, we got talking to Darryl, our host, and when he looked at our printed map he started drawing in the old hospital buildings in their rightful place. We then turned this new map upside down and reckoned that the tree mentioned on the original photo was probably in the Porirua cemetery. I then went online and searched for her godfather's name and, bingo, a result. We don't know what happened this time because Brigid had searched when in the UK with no success but this time we got a date of burial and the exact location of his grave. The original picture had been from the north looking south and all the computer maps are the other way round! 

Off we went to the cemetery. Once there we found the area where the grave was supposed to be but not the precise location. Anyway, there was a gang of gardeners working away and they promptly stopped working and helped us with our search. We soon found it, the reason for it being hidden is that a holly tree has grown up in front of the headstone and you can only read the inscription by approaching from behind and looking over the top. But it is near a large tree and corresponds to the layout in Brigid's memory picture. Mission accomplished. 

Having completed our task sooner than anticipated, we set off north toward Paraparaumu where we had arranged to meet up with friends during the afternoon. 

We went down to the beach and had a good long walk along the shore. 

In the afternoon we visited our friends, Ray and Jessie, at their retirement village. Now I say friends, which they are, but we only met them when we went to church in Hokitika. People are like that over here. 

Ray showed us all round the place. They have a gym, swimming pool, bowling green, croquet lawn, pétanque pitch, dining room, library, lake, garden walks, you name it, they've got it. 

When you move into a house there, the management team strip out all curtains, carpets and kitchen and replace the lot. They even put a carpet in the garage! With the garden, you do as much or as little as you want. A team of gardeners finish off what you don't do. In the gardens we saw some Monarch butterflies but it was too windy to film them. All I could get were the caterpillars and the Swan plants where they breed. 

Ray and Jessie love it there and I quite understand why. We stopped for tea with them but left just before they went Scottish dancing. We were invited to join them but we decided to go home via Paekakariki Hill. As always, the view from the top was quite stunning.