TRAVEL
MĀPUA SPOTLIGHT ON:
The Māpua wharf area of an evening.
THE PLACE OF ABUNDANCE Words: Johny O’Donnell.
Māpua means a place of abundance and the offering is absolutely true to its namesake.
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peaking of namesake, the name of this stunning seaside village has been misspelled by leaving out the macron on the ‘a’ until a couple of years ago when the New Zealand Geographic Board, spurred on by a local asking questions, corrected the name to it’s rightful spelling. Without the macron, Mapua simply means tidal inundation or a kind of crying or sobbing and despite climate change concerns that doesn’t really seem a fitting name for such an incredible wee village. One of my favourite things about Māpua is a fine Sunday afternoon in summer where all the best things this
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special seaside village has to offer come together - live music at Golden Bear, a stunning high tide through the estuary, families eating fish and chips on the lawn and kids jumping off the wharf to float down to the Leisure Park. On a really good day you’ll even find local kids jumping off the wharf on their bikes with insulation pipes attached so they can float on the bikes down the estuary. For the more classy among us, a bike ride along the Great Taste Trail is the (cont’d)
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