Day Three

The rain finally stopped during the evening, but the cloud cover remained. This meant it remained a quite warm evening and certainly not as cold as I had expected. We all woke early and were able to get on the road well before 9am. Our first stop was the Whanagarei Falls. This is a very accessible local sight that is a short walk from the carpark. The falls drop 25m into a lush, bush fringed pool.

There is a short 20m loop walk should you wish to go to the bottom. After taking a few pictures we drove east towards Ngunguru, Tutukaka and Matapouri Bay via the Coastal Loop Road. This was a pretty drive through farm lands and citrus orchards. The orchards had old stone pitched waist high walls going for many kilometres. Quite a sight on their own. As well as sheep and cattle, we also passed a deer farm or two. Our youngest son Pat was certain they were reindeer. Ngunguru is a little coastal village nestled by an estuary. Lots of watersports and fishing.

The winding roads, children going crazy over the vistas meant we missed the turnoff to the Tutukaka Recreational Reserve. I therefore didn't get a picture of the lighthouse. Not overly impressed by my mistake there. By the time I remembered, it wasn't worth turning around. So we kept driving towards Matapouri Bay. Lots of hills, more never ending forests and sneak peaks of the beautiful and rugged coastline. The seas were quite rough due to the strong winds. Matapouri Bay has a lovely white sand beach. There are small mermaid pools to discover at low tide (we missed the tide). From Ngunguru every little village onwards consists mostly of large modern beachhomes, bach's and the odd store. Whale Bay, Woolley's Bay and Sandy Bay seem to have lots of expensive weekenders. The almost 2m breaks meant there were a number of surfers out trying their luck. The water is quite cold, so they were all by themselves on the beach. Our journey then headed westwards towards the main highway (SN1) north. We stopped at Kawakawa for lunch in the sunshine. It was the first time we had a decent break in the rain. The reason for stopping at Kawakawa was to sit in the Trainspotters Cafe to watch the Bay of Islands Vintage Train "Gabriel" and see tourist like us milling around the public loos across the street. This toilet block was designed by the renowned Austrian Artist Freidrich Hundertwasser. They looked very Gaudi-ish. I took quite a few pics of this interesting handiwork.

Following a great lunch here we head north to Paihia. This is yet another coastal town and one of many in the Bay of Islands area. Paihia is the township where you catch the car ferry to Russell or a daytrip out to the Hole in the Rock or Cape Brett areas. We wandered around Paihia before heading to Waitangi, where the nation of New Zealand's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840. During the day you visit the cultural centre and at night local maori perform modern cultural productions. The boys didn't find the cultural centre engaging so we didn't get to discover too much here. The cover charge is $20 per adult and $5 per child, which is a two day pass. We didn't think that the 90 minutes we would be there justified the cost, so we jumped into the bago and headed back south of Paihia to find a campground from the evening.

The Beachside Holiday Park is south of Paihia on the Paihia- Opua Road. It is nestled on it's own private and secluded beach and is relatively small. When we arrive we are only the third van there, by evening there were at least 10 vans parked side by side. Most of us here are Aussies, from all over - Brisbane, Melbourne and Emerald to name a few. Lovely place. Facilities are basic, but clean and tidy. Most of all the internet allows me to download from my USB.

Small win for me finally as the blog is suffering from neglect. Hope the sun comes out again tomorrow as we are heading out onto the water. Then we head north to Cape Reinga - lighthouse heaven! Oh joy..