More Beaches and Trees
Otamure Bay Campsite
The skies cleared up and we left Auckland for a pleasant drive through Teletubbies/Hobbiton type landscape to the Tutukaka Coast. The Otamure Bay camp was a perfect spot after the bustle of Auckland. It was nice to have a clear afternoon outdoors after being cooped up for a couple of days. The next morning, we were able to get out on the water before the winds picked up. Good thing, it turned out to be our last opportunity to paddle on the trip. We even had a shark experience. That afternoon had the bay populated by several wind foilers.
Checked out the longest footbridge in the southern hemisphere on our way out.
Puriri Bay Campsite
The north island has way fewer DOC and places to freedom camp. This was the next spot up the coast. Would have been a nice bay to paddle around in, but we were back in the wind and weather. Sea kayaks would have been a good thing to have. There was a good hike from the campground.
Poor Knights Island Tour from Tutukaka
The next break in the weather, we scheduled a snorkeling tour out to Poor Knights Island taking off from Tutukaka. Saw lots of little fish, and got to snorkel around some sea caves, but it was coooold. Visibility wasn’t great, but a valiant effort was made to stay in the water as long as possible. The highlight was grabbing one of their kayaks and getting surrounded by gigantic schools of feeding trevally and maomao.
Mount Manaia
We were able to spend some time talking with one of guides in depth about skiing and mountain biking. For sure want to get back for a ski trip. We let slip that we had attempted to go out in search of kiwis a couple of times, but had failed. Turns out, he had a favorite spot that was only a half hour away from Tutukaka at Mount Manaia where he always saw kiwi. Our plan for the evening was to try and snag a freedom spot at the parking lot at Mount Manaia. It also features a “club” right next to the parking lot. We were hoping for a meal, but they only had food on the weekends, so we enjoyed a few pints at sunset before heading back to make our own dinner.
We took off up the trail before bed to search for kiwi, but were unsuccessful. We found out the next morning that our neighbors that went after us, didn’t go as far, and came back down before us, came across a kiwi. I made a plan to get up the next morning to make a run up the mount, Barb was noncommittal going to bed, but once I got up, she pulled herself up, and hit the trail in the dark with me. A full-ish moon made the trail navigable with just our headlamps on the lowest red setting.
I generally thought that the distinctive call of the kiwi would direct us to the birds, but the morning yielded nothing but the morepork, a small owl whose call sounds like “morepork.” As we stood catching our breath at one point, the rustle right next to us revealed that we were standing 12 inches – about 30 cms – from our kiwi. Due to the steep terrain, the kiwi was at about eye level with us as it foraged around. They are surprisingly big, about 18” tall and 7#s. No pics, it was dark, and taking a flash photo would have been just too rude
We finished our hike to the top, and caught the sunrise.
Whangārei Heads
A quick stop at the Pak-n-Sav in Whangarei, doubled as a place to park where we could get a look at the Hundertwasser Museum. Many locals find it an eyesore, but there’s no doubt that it brings in tourism dollars to the area. Timing didn’t work out, and I think we were beginning to feel the effects of constant travel, and found ourselves shrugging when it came to actually going into the museum. After scarfing down some really good sandwiches from “All You Knead,” we were off for the Bay of Islands, with a quick stop at the Hundertwasser Toilets in Kawakawa.
Bay of Islands
Our plan was to spend the night, get up the next morning to grab a water taxi out to Urapukapuka Island to camp, and boat, and hike. Looking back on our trip, I can see why that plan fell by the wayside. At the time, I just felt like we were being lazy. But, the weather wasn’t great, an we did start the day with a pre-dawn hike, and followed it with another hike. We had a full day of travel and sight-seeing to get to Pahia. We Borrowed kayaks from the campground to explore the waterfalls, and the river. It was a nice way to spend the day, and probably better than rushing to get our laundry done, back packs packed, and an early morning departure. It also started raining at dusk, and didn’t really stop for a couple of days.
Good thing we made that call, the washer couldn’t handle our load of laundry. It took a special token, so when we discovered that the washer couldn’t spin our clothes, and they were still sitting in water, there wasn’t anything we could do about it until the management came back the next day. This holiday park was pretty expensive, and it was the only spot we stayed that was run down. Instead of trying to deal with their old machine, we simply went to a “liquid laundromat” the next day, and headed down the rainy road, grateful not to be heading out for a couple of days of rainy beach camping.
Trounson Kauri Park
We stopped at the Kerikeri Scenic Reserve, home of the oldest stone building and oldest fruit tree in New Zealand. Some great history to be had, and a fantastic walk through the reserve.
We got to Trounson Park pretty late, but we were still able to go for a little walk in the evening to look for kiwis. We were unsuccessful, but the couple we ran into on our way out, let us know the next morning that they were able to have their very own kiwi experience. Would have been frustrating to miss it again by minutes, if we hadn’t succeeded the other morning.
We were getting into real Kauri big and old Kauri trees now. The next morning, we did the tourist walks to see the truly old trees. Well worth it.
Dargoville Holiday Park
Super pleasant park, pretty close to the Museum we planned on spending some time at the next day.
Kauri Museum
If you like trees, but you are also fascinated by how the logging industry advanced to such a degree as to wipe out almost all of the native forests, this is the place for you. It simply blew us away, and we spent a big chunk of the day there.
Piha Beach
The last few days, we were at a bit of a loss. Just on a whim, we went to Piha Beach, with no clear idea what it would be like. We hadn’t been on the western coast since the beginning of our North Island trip, if you don’t count Auckland. We found Piha to be a great place. Unbeknownst to us, many people start, and end, their trips here since it is about 30 minutes from the Auckland Airport.
Done and Dusted –
Until next time!
