ABOUT TOWN WHAKATĀNE
To leave Tauranga, its spaghetti of express roads and flyovers and inexorable spread of houses, to leave and drive southeast along the coast to Whakatāne, is to loosen up, let out a long breath, bask in light from the ocean, and enjoy the ride. Once over a slow bend of the Whakatāne River, relax; you’re almost there.
As a child, I’d travel with my family from Tauranga to visit two great-aunts in Gisborne. Like my parents, my aunts were English immigrants during the “Ten Pound Pom” era of postwar immigration. Sometimes my dad would drive the long way, east through Whakatāne, around Cape Runaway, then south, past a succession of beautiful bays —
