Antony came to stay with us for a night, as it was his 40th birthday on the 13th! Goodness, where has that time gone, and how did I get to be old enough to have a 40 year old!!!
Birthday cake
We had a nice dinner together before he headed out for the evening, I did a slow roasted leg of lamb with all the trimmings. I had a cake for him for morning tea on his birthday.
He was off to play poker on Saturday afternoon, where the guys surprised him and gave him a new Phoenix (NZ football team) shirt and they also had a cake for him. Lucky fella.
A few days later and Roy was having a birthday, he is nearly twice Antony’s age!!! We headed up the road to Eatery Rothesay Bay for brunch, delicious it was too and one of the best coffees I’ve had in a very long time.
EateryBrunch for two
The following day we had friends come to visit, all are volunteers at Shakespear whom we have got to know quite well over the years. Skip & Mindy along with Alison & Selwyn have been stalwarts of the volunteer community at Shakespear, the backbone of what keeps the park running smoothly whilst taking a lot of pressure off the hard working Rangers. I had made a large pot of soup for lunch which was fitting for a dull day. And yes, I forgot to take any photos.
The following day, another wet miserable day, Peter & Wendy came over for lunch. We spent a very pleasant afternoon wiling away the day. And I even remembered to snap a photo.
Roy and Peter
I forgot to take a photo which included us ladies., oh well, next time!
We are housesitting in Rothesay Bay (next to Browns Bay in the North shore of Auckland) for my niece Sarah and her husband Shaun as they are off on holiday with their three teenage sons to Thailand and Malaysia. We have two cats to looks after, Charlie and Rosie, and a gorgeous house to relax in.
Rosie & CharlieMap of general area with Browns Bay highlighted. NB the blue dot indicates where the van is parked at Peter &Wendy’s, just a 14 minute drive away.
We quickly settled in and made ourselves familiar with our surroundings, hmmm, I’m thinking that the pool may get used a little if the weather stays warm.
The pool covered up
The house has been recently renovated so is pristine and sparkly, which also means we have very little to do apart from feed ourselves and the cats.
However, it does mean we can catch up on lots of little things that have been put into the “later” basket. I did take advantage of having a washing machine at hand and washed, Bluo’ed, dried and ironed, yes, ironed, all my sheet sets!! Do you remember Bluo?
It’s not available in NZ and hasn’t been for some years but I found some when we were in Melbourne a few years ago and bought a few bottles home with me. Funnily enough I also have a packet of blue bags in the cupboard, probably should be in a museum now. It does work though and now all our linen is beautifully bright white again, ironed and neatly folded into sets. The sets of sheets and pillowcases, get folded up and placed inside one of the pillowcases turned inside out, which when folded over you can use the pocket on the pillow slip to neatly fold over encasing the set neatly into a package. I took the opportunity of clearing out my linen cupboard and relining all the shelves. Yes, I know, I’m weird!!
We’ve kept ourselves busy going back and forth to the van, to measure things, pick up something we’ve forgotten or doing a few chores. Tax returns have been completed as well. In the midst of doing all this I had a wee panic as I couldn’t remember where I had safely stashed our passports, I found them, put them back where they belong then got back to the house to realise that I hadn’t checked the expiry dates. Oh I must have a photo of the passports somewhere….after a quick search of photos, emails and messages I eventually found the photos, and we both have relatively new passports. Phew! Note to self, put all travel document photos into an album for easy retrieval.
The pool man came to clean the pool one day, it almost looked good enough to dive into!!
Pool man cleaning the pool
We are enjoying our time here and getting to explore this area, the beach is at the end of the street and there is a great cafe at the top of the road. I’m sure the time will go all too quickly.
We parked up at Peter & Wendy’s in Albany for a week which has been lovely, we had plenty to keep us busy and a few days after we arrived, P&W arrived back from their Easter break away.
Parked side by side before the great washing of vehicles took place.
Peter washed his vehicles after being near the sea to get all the salt and sand off, whilst the water blaster was out we also washed both of our vehicles, then we watched Pete expertly backed his RV into the barn. I don’t quite know how he does it as the van is tucked into one corner of the barn avoiding all the other vehicles and obstacles.
We are here for a few more days until we go housesitting, but first we have to take the van into RVRepairs for an insurance assessment, you see there was a little bit of an oopsie a few weeks ago when a guard rail at an unmanned fuel station leapt out and caught the side of the van.
Ooops!
The van will be going in to be repaired hopefully soon, another thing off our list of things to get done over the next few weeks.
Peter & Wendy have been extremely generous in allowing us to leave the van with them whilst we are away, it’s good to know it’s safe whilst we are away housesitting and later when we go to England.
We enjoyed our stay with them and especially the peace and quiet however we will still see them over the next few weeks as our housesitting stint is only 14minutes away and there is bound to be bits and pieces we have forgotten to pack.
Arriving at Uretiti is somewhat akin to coming home for us it seems. We arrived in good time after leaving Kerikeri and once we arrived at the camp we got our frozens taken care of by the kind hosts which means we can relax a little and survive via chilly bin for a few days until the fridge gets delivered.
You will have to read the previous post for all about the fridge and it’s installation which seemed to have consumed our lives for the better part of a week.
After all the fridge work was done, there was a day of rest and recovery, besides, the weather wasn’t great so it was a good day to relax and watch a movie. The next day (Thursday), the fellas went out fishing for the morning whilst I had a good spring autumn clean up, they did return with fish as well which was great. Garry was leaving us that afternoon as he had family arriving for the weekend. It was also the start of the influx of campers arriving for Easter weekend.
Over the next day or so, the camp filled up with people, I don’t think we have ever been here when it has been so busy and I must admit that I don’t really enjoy being surrounded so many people, crowds have never really been my thing.
Good Friday and we were off to One Tree Point to visit Gary & Marg for lunch. It’s always a good catch up with these two and we always have a good laugh regaling tales. Of course narry a photo was taken.
Friday night we had a bit of a shock to our system, the temperature plummeted down to 8 overnight, it was a little chilly and we are not ready for cooler temperatures yet! At least the day afterwards is a clear blue sky day and it quickly warms up into the mid 20’s.
Saturday was spent doing a few chores that we’ve been meaning to do for ages plus pack up ready to leave Easter Sunday. We are heading back toward Auckland for the next few weeks until we fly out to England. We are also taking full advantage of the Brynderwyn’s being open for the Easter weekend and we chose to travel on Easter Sunday when we guessed the traffic heading south won’t be too heavy and before it closes again on Tuesday for them to complete the major roading repairs.
The Brynderwyn’s are a range of hills that form a natural boundary between Northland and the rest of NZ, we always feel that going over the twisty road to the top of the hills is like driving over a country border as when you reach the top and see over Bream Bay to Whangarei Heads you feel like you are in another country.
There was a steady stream of traffic heading north along the Highway, and it wasn’t long before the sign indicating that the road was open welcomed us.
Sign indicating that the road is openThe southbound lanes are blocked off with major repairs to the washed out road being undertaken.Major earthworks and millions of tonnes of earth have been removed already.Lots of earthworks still to be completed.
The rest of the trip went by very quickly and we were soon parked up at Peter & Wendy’s. Oh it’s so nice to be here in peace and quiet, the birdsong is very noticeable and joyful to hear. We are here for the next few days until the weekend and after that the van will be staying here as we are off housesitting for a couple of weeks, somewhere which is a new housesitting stint for us, we are looking forward to it.
The van had been booked in at Kaitaia Tractors to get a change of transmission fluid. We had topped the fluid up ourselves whilst at Tauranga Bay but Garry pointed out that it probably needed a complete change. It’s handy having someone who knows about such things, he could tell by the smell of the fluid on the dipstick that it needed changing – who knew to take a sniff at the dipstick? Speaking of dipstick, the ones in the van are incredibly long…as in around 5 ft long!
We were due at the workshop first thing Monday morning so we headed into Kaitaia on Sunday to get a few chores done; laundry, shopping, dumping, getting fuel etc but we also has another pressing chore to attend to. The fridge wasn’t working, in fact it had well and truly died. How did we know for sure? From the very strong ammonia smell that happened on our way into Kaitaia. We knew straight away what was the problem so the fridge was immediately switched off and windows opened. We need to get it removed as soon as possible for safety reasons. But we have a freezer full of fish as well as other delights. What are we to do?
We were spending the night at the RSA and on booking in there and chatting with the bar staff, they very kindly offered to put out freezer contents into their large chiller. Brilliant, what a very kind offer. With that dilemma sorted, after delivering the van to the workshop on Monday morning we headed back into town to try and a) find someone to cap off the gas and remove the fridge b) find a replacement.
We knew we didn’t want another 3 way fridge, that is running off gas/12v/240v, we wanted a straight domestic 240v fridge. Initially we thought we also needed to have installed another solar panel dedicated to the fridge with its own battery, inverter and controller however that was proving impossible to find someone to do all of that. I made contact with Wayne Hunt from Motorhome Solar, as he did all our upgrades of our solar system a few years ago, yes he said, we can comfortably run an inverter compressor fridge on our system very easily, the brands to go for are Samsung or LG, he tells us. Great, now I know what to look for I can do some research. But what brilliant service from Wayne, his continued customer service is outstanding and we can highly recommend his company for good, honest, reliable service.
The other factor was the cost, approximately $3800 for a new 3 way fridge plus fitting including the services of a gas fitter versus $850 for a digital inverter fridge which we could fit ourselves (with help). A no brainer really. With the type of fridge sorted, the immediate priority was to find a gas fitter to remove the old fridge. Again, our fingers did the walking and we found a gas fitter in Kaitaia who could come first thing Tuesday morning and cap off the gas. Valentino from North Flow turned up as promised, on time, checked out our gas system, disconnected everything and then proceeded to get the fridge out of the van.
Valentino and Roy trying to remove the fridge.Getting the old fridge onto the trailer, Valentino offered to take it to the rubbish tip for us, how kind is that?
With specifications in hand we let our fingers do the walking, actually we got Mr Google to help us to find the right fridge. We are limited on size of a new fridge as it has to fit in the recess we have, not such an easy task it seems as fridges are rather large these days. After an exhaustive afternoon spent googling, going to visit shops, suppliers and phoning all over Northland trying to find the right one, mostly being told that they are unavailable, or I have to wait 2-3 weeks, with one place telling me it was a 6 week wait, I finally found a very helpful man in Whangarei at Barrell’s 100% Extreme Store. He went out of his way to be helpful, checking on stock, checking other stores before going straight to the manufacturer. He could get one delivered to us by the end of the week, he told me, brilliant, he even gave a bit of a discount too.
We have to say that the people of Kaitaia were extremely helpful and friendly, from the many businesses we made enquiries with, to staff at the RSA, the café we frequented (Manaaki on 25), where the staff and food were fantastic, we cannot fault the locals from being exceptionally helpful and friendly.
Going without a fridge for a week is going to be a challenge, as well, we needed to keep those frozens frozen for a day or two. Next purchase, a chilly bin and salt ice. The bin was packed with the ice and the frozens carefully placed inside with the the lid closed and taped down, everything should remain frozen until out next destination.
Chilly bin fridge!
We had a one night stop in Kerikeri before continuing on to Uretiti DOC camp where I knew that the managers Steve & Adrien would allow us to put our frozens into their freezer. We just had to wait a few days for the fridge to be delivered, and as promised I had a phone call to say they could deliver it to us on Saturday morning.
Fridge has arrived and is going well running off our solar array.
Sunday afternoon Garry arrived to help us with fitting the fridge into the recess. Some adjustments had to be made because the new fridge is taller than the old one, plus it has to be secured in place. Child proof locks were also purchased to secure the doors so they don’t accidentally swing open whilst we are on the move.
Oh look at all those wires. Remnants of the original American wiring plus new wiring. It was all tested, what could be removed was removed, the rest tidied up and carefully stashed. New wall linings were installed to complete the tidy up.
Of course it did not all go to plan, and new plans were constantly evolving. By the end of Monday we had the fridge in situ but not secured, as the final problem had to be overcome.
The fridge levelling feet at the front of the fridge were the problem and with no wriggle room left at the top we had to come up with another plan. The biggest issue was the left hand foot was under the base of the fridge but the right hand foot was under the hinge of the door, the door sits outside the cabinetry. After a good nights sleep with many ideas running through everyone’s heads, Garry came up with the perfect solution, we needed a piece of angle iron cut to length for the width of the fridge, this could be mounted flush with the base of the fridge with a long bolt threaded through the angle iron into position with locking nuts to effectively become the adjustable foot, as an added bonus it meant that the fridge would be bolted to the floor securely.
Looking through the vent hole and doorway, yes that is the fridge inside the door.It looked like a building site outside.
A trip into Whangarei was required where we found a very helpful engineering company who had exactly the angle iron that we wanted plus they cut it to length and rounded off the edges. Perfect. Bolts were sourced and purchased and back we went to Uretiti. Holes were drilled, I painted the angle iron with rust proofing paint and once the paint dried it was all put into place. However, one of the bolts for the feet was too short to go through all the wood, so I had to go back into Whangarei to buy one more bolt. I was back by 5:30pm, bolt put in, angle brackets had already been secured to the back of the fridge and side bracing put in. It was all done. Woop woop.
We can’t thank Garry enough for all his help and able assistance, and it’s been a bit of a mammoth task as of course not everything went to plan.
Getting there, the final adjustments being made, Garry on the floor and Roy holding the fridge in place. Voilà, new fridge in situ, bolted down in every way possible. The old fridge was probably only as tall as the underside of the energyrating sticker, I now have much more usable fridge & freezer space.
We’ve now had the fridge running for a week or more and energy wise it is very very efficient, we get down to anything between 85% to 87% full overnight so we are thrilled with its performance. It is certainly going to save us some LPG usage with it paying for itself over a very short period of time. As well, it has ice making capabilities which has a certain member of the touring party delighted, lots of ice for his rum!!
It had to be done, we just had to revisit Houhora and Rarawa, we haven’t been back for a couple of years and we really wanted to check it out again. We had originally planned to head up that way and stay and spend some time up here but plans change and we both (Garry and us) have other things we need to get done. Looking back through our blog, I see we’ve been at Rarawa at some stage every year (apart from the last two years) since 2013, no wonder I was missing it!
From Tokerau Beach (blue dot), to Houhora (A), to Rarawa (B), to Pukenui (red dot), to 90mile beach, exit at Waipapakauri, then return home.
Our first stop was to Wageners Camp in Houhora, we have stayed here a few times previously, we went to check out the new improvements made and the winter rates they offer. We would definitely come and stay here again, and as soon as we are able to fit it in.
Looking out to Houhora heads from the campground
Time to continue on our journey north, but first a stop at the container café just north of Houhora for one of their amazing pies. Now these pies are made on-site and have the best homemade pastry, it’s very thin and delicious with the pies filled to bursting with delicious fillings. And not justthe usual fillings either, how about an eggs Benedict pie, or a big breakfast pie – hash brown, bacon, egg, beans and goodness knows what else, or a burger pie, or spinach feta and pumpkin pie, or a paua pie. All delicious.
The unassuming pie shopFound these two fellas enjoying their pies!
From there it was onto Rarawa, we first checked out the camp ground, reminiscing about the times we have been here and the people we have met.
Looking across the campground, the large macrocarpa trees that used to line the boundary along the front of the camp have all been removed.
Next it was down the beach. Here we met up with a lovely local whom we met last time we were here, he regaled us with tales as he came to watch us fish.
Roy setting up his line on Rarawa Beach
We had a great couple of hours here and managed to catch some good fish as well. Before too long though it was time to pack up and start our return journey.
Oh but first we must call in to the container café again to get one of their famous all fruit ice creams. Someone from the touring party who shall remain nameless enjoyed his icecream so much he had another one!
Boysenberry real fruit icecream Garry (with his first icecream) and Roy enjoying their afternoon treat.
From here we made the instant decision to go out to 90mile beach to see what the prospects were for maybe having a fish off there. However, on the drive out to the beach there was a constant stream of vehicles all looking like they were set up for fishing. It wasn’t until we got to the beach we realised that it was the Snapper Bonanza surf casting competition.
Surf casting rods lined a good stretch of the beach, with 1000 competitors, it’s a big event.
As it was late in the afternoon, most of the competitors were packing up and heading back to the weigh in base at Waipapakauri. We joined the long stream of cars driving down the beach.
Driving down 90mile beachIn the queue of vehiclesSome of the competitors at the weigh-in centre. There was a huge marquee set up for prize giving and celebrations. (Photo from Snapper Bonanza website)
Prizes were good too, a new Mitsubishi ute, $30,000 for the heaviest snapper caught over the 3 days of competition, daily spot prizes and much more. It is apparently extremely popular with entries for the following year opening in June this year. You have to be quick to get an entry in.
Back onto the main road and we headed back to base, but we all agreed that we must come back to this part of the country again soon.
We are back! Yes, back at Tokerau Beach. It seems like an age since we were last here particularly as we frequented this area quite regularly in our early years on the road wether it be staying at Ramp Road, Maitai Bay, a local POP (park over property), with friends or latterly the NZMCA park. We elected this time to stay at the NZMCA park, there was hardly anyone else in the park, it was quiet and peaceful and it’s easy access to the beach.
Entrance to the NZMCA park at Tokerau Beach….our van in the distance.Parked up with a view to the beach 100m awayView to the beach through the front windscreen
We were soon settled in and after a bite to eat and a cuppa we headed off for an explore. Garry hadn’t been out this way before so we took him on a tiki tour –Tiki tour means a look-around, drive or trip (and was originally derived from an old New Zealand tourist company of the same name).
We went first to the end of the peninsular and Maitai Bay (A on the map) which is a DOC run campground. With a Rahui (a shellfish gathering and fishing ban) in place for both Maitai and Waikato Bays, it didn’t warrant us staying out there. Next was a short drive over the other side of the peninsular to Karikari Beach (B) to the parking area which then requires a walk over the sand dunes for access to the beach. It was back into the car and down to Rangiputa (C) and Puheke/Puwheke (D) (spelling varies), and of course I didn’t take one photo on our tiki tour! From there it was out to Ramp Road (red dot), a freedom camping site administered by DOC, there were quite a few campers scattered throughout the sand dunes but finding a half decent level spot in the dunes would be very difficult we all agreed and access to the beach is difficult since storms chopped away at the banks making it a steep drop down to the beach.
Map of our tiki tourSigns at the entrance to Waikato Bay
We made our way back to the NZMCA park, yes, this will do us nicely for our stay in this region, we can easily drive onto the beach from here and choose a likely fishing spot anywhere along the 18km stretch of sand forming Doubtless Bay.
Tokerau beach is a long stretch of firm flat sand making it ideal for driving along, not at breakneck speed like some of the locals seem to do but at a more sedate pace, looking for a likely fishing spot.
Yes, there’s a good fishing spot along there somewhere!Yes, fish were caughtRoy getting some sea water with lots of gulls looking for food
We collected tuatuas one afternoon, it didn’t take us long at all. We left the shellfish in a bucket of water overnight, this is to let them spit out any sand as we don’t really need to eat sandy fritters. We open the shellfish raw and then cook them afterwards. This method, rather than steaming the shellfish open, means the tuatuas are only cooked once, they tend to become chewy if you cook them twice. I made them all into delicious fritters for lunch the following day.
The water was surprisingly warm, which was fortunate when we went collecting tuatuas (shellfish).
Wednesday 13th March was our 42nd wedding anniversary, and just how did we spend the day? Well, first of all, Roy had broken a tooth and needed to have the sharp edges ground down so we had to find a dentist, not an easy task in this neck of the woods. However, we did find one who could accommodate him in Coopers Beach, not too far away at all. Whilst he was at the dentist, Garry and I went to the laundromat, I know, exciting stuff isn’t it? Roy was quickly back with us and with the washing done we were soon on our way back to camp. But we did have to have a stop at Cable Bay for a treat.
Cable BayWe may have had to stop at the Cable Bay store for an icecream.
Back at the park, the washing was hung out to dry, and what else was there to do? Yep, go fishing.
Fishing on our wedding anniversary
Yes, many fish were caught and we returned home to retrieve the washing from the line and tidy up before dinner. Fortunately I had made a large Bacon & Egg Pie in the morning ready for a quick and easy dinner to have with some salad.
More fishing was done over the next few days with the freezer filling rapidly. An epic trip further north will be the subject of the next blog entry as we managed to fit in a very full day of fishing, exploring and fun.
We all really enjoyed our week at Tokerau Beach, we did lots of fishing, lots of exploring but soon enough our time to move on was upon us.
Waaaay back in March2011 we bought this van/RV/motorhome (I never know what to call it, apart from home) and set off on what we envisaged being a one or two year trip discovering the high ways and by ways of New Zealand whilst checking out where we may want to one day settle. Fast forward 13 years and we are still travelling, still haven’t found exactly where we may like to settle one day, but why stop when you just love living this carefree life.
What would I do differently or tell someone who is contemplating hitting the road? First and foremost, make sure that you and your partner are on the same page and that you actually like each other! We’ve seen a few people hit the road with all good intentions but then discover that they either can’t get on in a confined space or don’t have a good enough relationship to be able to do their own thing when they want to. You each have to be comfortable in your own skin.
Secondly, slow down and take your time. We started with a hiss and a roar, moving every other day and rushing around to fit lots in. Why? Take your time, enjoy where you are, explore, talk to people, do new things, see what’s around you. It takes a while to slow down and smell the roses and enjoy your surroundings, in the end it’s worth it.
Next, make sure your accommodation suits both of your needs. Is it big enough? Do you want to make up a bed every day or do you want a permanently set up bed? Does it have enough storage space? Does it have enough load capacity i.e. what weight you can legally carry in your vehicle. Can you both drive it/tow it? You never know when there may be an emergency. Do you want a separate vehicle ie. a tow behind or a vehicle you tow your caravan/5th wheel? Do you want a car or a 4WD? Do you want to go off-roading or just use it for shopping or small trips? Or are you happy using your motorhome/van or maybe biking for those every day chores. That’s the next thing, do you want a bike and is your vehicle able to store or have the ability to have a safely and securely mounted bike rack? Do you want ebikes and can you recharge them easily?
We love living in our tiny home on wheels, we’ve done the big houses and property thing and quite frankly we don’t want to do any of that any more.
We’ve covered the country from Cape Reinga to Bluff, more than once, and yes we do revisit favourite places but we also like to explore new-to-us places and yes there are still plenty of places to explore and discover.
Someone once said that you retire so that you can have the time to keep all the medical appointmentsthat suddenly seem to creep up on you, and sure, we have had our fair share of appointments, surgeries and checkup but we still want to carry on as long as we can.
Another wise person told us that as you get older your circle of friends tend to shrink, and you can become quite insular particularly if you don’t take up opportunities as they arise. One of the best things about living this lifestyle is that we are constantly meeting lots and lots of new people, some you instantly click with and you become great friends, others you may share an interest, others you meet up with occasionally as your paths cross. But there is a definite community of fellow full timers (and part timers) whom are welcoming and helpful, probably more so than when living in ‘sticksnbricks’, people are willing to stop, chat, say gidday, or conversely leave you alone when you want to be left alone to enjoy a bit of solitude. We definitely would not have met some of the folk whom we now consider very good friends had we not been on the road.
We would encourage you to shop local, especially in the smaller centres, you will find all sorts of wee gems out there of people doing amazing things wether it be food, art, mechanical repairs and many other things. That also goes for visiting local museums, galleries, or even libraries, it’s amazing what you will find.
We have been very fortunate to not only be able to travel around NZ but we’ve also managed to fit in quite a number of trips overseas. Each of our trips have been very different but all have been for 4-6 months at a time; from travelling around Europe in a motorhome, lots of train travel especially around Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and England. Narrowboating in England (thanks Marilyn & David), barging in France (thanks Ruth & Roger) and a Baltic Cruise plus of course plane travel, bus and car hire.
Before you ask what are your long term plans? The short answer is that we don’t have too many. The last 4 years in particular have demonstrated how quickly life, the world and our environment can change. We don’t know what is ahead of us but we are making the most of what we have, the time, the places and people we care about. Ask anyone who has faced their own mortality for whatever reason – money, property, cars and other trappings of modern life’s “status symbols” are not what is important, it’s about living life, exploring, creating memories and relationships and making the world a better place.
Reflecting on the last 13 years of travelling is there anything I would change? Apart from doing it earlier? then no, not a lot.
It’s been many many years since we’ve been to Tauranga Bay near the entrance to Whangaroa Harbour, we booked into the campground for a week expecting a nice quiet relaxed time. It’s not too far from a Kerikeri, just 38minutes according to Mr Google.
Tauranga Bay as indicated by the blue dot.
An uneventful drive however we did note the new bridge at Kaeo which only opened a week or two ago is now operational and all traces of the old single lane bridge has gone. There are still plenty of one lane bridges in this part of the country, some of them have very difficult entry and exit angles especially if you are a bit on the longer side.
New bridge at Kaeo
We were soon parked up at the campground in the second row from the beachfront sites, all the beachfront sites were booked up, in fact we are very surprised at just how very busy it is here.
Garry’s caravan parked up beside us.The view through the the front window in the small time frame when that particular beachfront site was empty, which was all of probably less than 30minutes!! Looking east along the beachAnd looking west toward the entrance to Whangaroa Harbour
It seemed like every beachfront campsite had at least one surf casting rod in a holder either with line out or about to go out.
Perfect place to sort and watch the world go by
Fishing here wasn’t very productive at all, in fact it wasn’t very good for anyone who was fishing. All the snapper caught by Roy & Garry was returned to the sea to grow a little bigger. I resorted to making cheese scones for lunch one day and blimmen good they were too.
Cheese scones anyone?
The view changed daily with people coming and going and we watched a succession of boats both big and small come in and out of Whangaroa Harbour.
Super yacht Artefact, all 80m of it passing by, owned by the man who created the Blackberry device.
Garry needed to get an LPG bottle filled so we went into Kaeo one afternoon. Kaeo is a very small one horse town, literally!!
On a trip into Kaeo, a jandal covered fence and a horse and rider wandering through the Main Street aka State Highway.
The days were busily filled what with one thing or another although we had booked in for a week we left a day early as the fish weren’t biting and the place was becoming too crowded for us, especially as from the 1 March they allow dogs in the camp and there were plenty of them. In fact I would say that we were the exception in not having a dog or cat travelling with us. So with that we packed up and left a day earlier than planned and headed further north.
And I thought it was about time for a Callum update, here he is with his current favourite book and dressed for International Book Day.
Callum dressed as his favourite book person- Ayrton Senna
It won’t be too long before we are on our way to visit him, and with a number of activities already planned and booked, we cannot wait!
We were sitting quietly having our morning cuppa whilst in Kerikeri when I got a call from Jacky….”where are you? How would you like to join us in Russell for the night, we have been given a couple of rooms for the night at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel?” Well, that didn’t require much thought, yes, was the quick reply. We quickly packed an overnight bag and set off to Russell.
The drive is not far at all but Mr Google insisted on trying to take us the long way round over some very dodgy back roads. However, we knew to go via the car ferry which takes you from Opua to Okiato, a much shorter and a more pleasant drive rather than all around your hat.
We had to wait all of 5 minutes to board the ferry, and we were quickly loaded on ready for the short trip across the harbour. Although it is very unnerving sitting in the car whilst passing moored boats.
On the ferry
We were soon at the Duke of Marlborough hotel right on the waterfront in Russell.
Hotel
Checked in, we went to our room.
Our comfortable room
It wasn’t long before Jacky & Chris arrived and we went to sit at one of the hotel tables on the foreshore to watch the world go by and imbibe on some liquid refreshments before dinner.
Afternoon drinks with this view.
We had decided we would eat in the hotel restaurant and really take in the atmosphere. The meal was excellent and reasonably priced too we all thought.
Top: Smoked mullet pâté, carpaccio of tomatoes. Bottom: whole slow roasted shoulder of lamb which just fell off the bone served with all the trimmings that Roy and I shared, followed by a Tiramisu Martini
We all agreed that the meal was outstanding, the menu was full of the best of NZ food. Jacky had a Boil Up which included Titi (Mutton bird) and Hangi Pork Belly, Kumara and watercress, there was also Ika Mata – raw fish salad, and other local delights which were relished by us all.
The R Tucker Thompson historic sailing vessel coming into the jetty. Note that this photo was taken from our dinning table.
It was a lovely evening, tales were told, many laughs were had and the world was put to rights. After a relaxing evening we all headed off to our respective rooms for a good nights sleep.
Morning view.
It truly is a wonderful setting, we could have watched the world go by for quite some time but we had agreed to meet up back in Kerikeri at the Saturday market for breakfast. But first the return trip via the ferry
Yes, we did drive over water!!!
Breakfast was had at the market where Garry joined us before Jacky & Chris left to return home. A lovely change of scene and a refreshing break from the usual. Now we are ready and raring to go to venture further north.
The Vanninis' Manoeuvres 