Seven days touring the Northlands and we only scratch the surface - Part II

Good day. I am continuing from our last posting on February 10. As a reminder, this and our February 10th posting are about our week long touring/camping trip in the Northlands (or Far North) of New Zealand from Thursday, January 26th to Wednesday, February 1. The itinerary of our trip was (see February 10th posting for a map):

Part I
Thursday, Jan. 26 - Trounson Kauri Park
Friday, Jan. 27 - Trounson Kauri Park and Waipoua Kauri Forest
Part II
Saturday, Jan. 28 - 90 Mile Beach and Te Paki Recreation Reserve (giant sand dunes)
Sunday, Jan. 29 - Cape Reinga and Matauri Bay
Monday, Jan. 30 - Matauri Bay and Mimiwhangata Campground
Tuesday, Jan. 31 - Poor Knights Island
Wednesday, Feb. 1 - Whangerei, Waipu Beach, and home

Saturday - Sand, sand everywhere

On Saturday we drove from Ahipara to our Saturday night campground at Tapotupotu Bay near Cape Reinga. The theme of our day was sand and we had a lot of fun playing in it. On a map this looks like a long drive, particularly if you think you are going to be driving on NZ's ever-winding highways. However, much of the highway from Ahipara to Cape Reinga is flat and straight, so we made good time which allowed us to enjoy a bit more of the sites.

Our first stop of the day was at a store that sold kauri wood products - "Ancient Kauri Kingdom". All of the items in the store from furniture to picture frames are made from swamp kauri. The best part of the store is a wide spriral staircase they have cut out of the middle of a kauri log. Walking up it gives you a better sense of how wide these trees were/are.

Rarawa Beach - silica sand

From there we drove to Rarawa Beach which is on the east side of the Aupouri Peninsula (I call it the Cape Reinga peninsula). It is part of a stretch of white silica sand beach. Silica sand is very fine and essentially white--think of walking on sugar. This was an awesome beach that we spent not enough time at eating our lunch and picking seashells. One of the highlights of our stop there was that no one other than our campground host, including our guidebook, suggested we go there. We felt like we found something new that lots of people who tour around NZ don't see. (This is because much of the focus is on 90 Mile Beach on the western side of the Cape Reinga peninsula.)

If I have one regret from our Northlands tour, it is not spending more time at this beach. It really was spectacular and peaceful. We had a list of things and places we wanted to see, which were all good, but we should have planned a little more slack time. I don't want to sound like we were obsessed ("You'll have fun and you'll like it!), but like the title suggests, 7 days was not enough.

Rarawa Beach was also the start of our sand love-in. It was pretty windy on Saturday and silica sand is pretty light. So, not only did we have sand between our toes, but it blew into our hair and ears, our backpacks, lunch, etc.

From there we drove to a little town called Te Keo and each had a big, single scoop of ice cream. Delish. NZ has really good ice cream.

After Te Keo we drove to the Te Paki Recreation Reserve. Within the reserve is a 7 square km area of giant sand dunes. Some of them are easily 300 metres high and they stretch several kilometres inland from the coast. It is hard to describe just how big and extensive they are. Up to this point, this was Karen's favourite site/place we visited. It is a stunning landscape.

Te Paki Sand Dunes

One of the things you can do at the sand dunes is rent a body board (that you would use for body surfing on waves) and "sandboggan" down some of the dunes. Like I said, they are high and steep and you get going pretty fast (exhilarating might be the word). We all wiped out at the bottom, me more than once, and ate some sand and got it into a lot of uncomfortable places. Great fun. The worst part was climbing up the dunes to go for another run. Climbing through the deep sand left you exhausted by the time you reached the top. A lot of people only do one run. Not us of course, "we" had to go until we could hardly walk. (The Scottish in me made sure we got our money's worth out of that board rental).

After sandbogganning we climbed the dunes one more time to get a look at the ocean. However, where we were sandbogganning from was not the highest dune, so we had to climb some more, walk, and then climb some more. Then we could see the ocean. I had thoughts of walking to the ocean until I reached the peak and realized it was still about 1.5 kms away and required more ups and downs. Too far for that point in the day. Marshall had a lot of fun jumping and running down the dunes. Given the wind, plus all of our sledding and walking, I am sure you can get a pretty good idea of how much sand we carried out of Te Paki and into our van.

Most people come to Te Paki simply to sandboggan. While this is great fun, I would recommend that if someone had the time they pack a bunch of water and spend the day exploring the area. There are more than just sand dunes at Te Paki and the walk to and along the coast looked very cool.

Throughout this posting I have talked about 90 Mile Beach. This is a stretch of beach that runs continuously from Ahipara to Te Paki. I have heard it is not 90 miles long. This maybe true, but I do know it is over 100 km long. You can access the beach from several points along the way up to Cape Reinga. People use the beach as a highway, although it is not recommended if you don't have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Apparently you can find abandoned vehicles that have been trapped by the incoming tide. The guides for the area warn you that your auto insurance, including rental, will likely not cover loss or damage to your vehicle caused by being swamped in the ocean. Somehow this didn't surprise me. Anyway, other than Te Paki, we did not spend any signficant time on 90 Mile Beach. Marshall and I walked a bit of it while we were in Ahipara. We weren't about to drive on it and we didn't know where any of the highlight areas of this beach were, so we confined our explorations to doable things like Rarawa Beach and Te Paki Sand Dunes.

Campground rating - After Te Paki we drove to our campsite at Tapotupotu Bay. This is a DOC (Dept. of Conservation) campground. It is located on a beautiful bay with a sandy beach surrounded by high cliffs. However, despite its stunning vista it did not rate high on Marshall's list: scenery - 4.5, campground quality - 1.5 (outhouse-like toilets, coldwater showers (although these were pretty welcome after a day in the wind and sand), no picnic tables or shelters, and lots of mosquitoes (more on those later)), and noisiness  - 0 (It was a Saturday night of a long weekend and one group was a "fun" time. However, when they can even wake Marshall up at 1 am, you know they were being noisy.) This was too bad because it did spoil a beautiful location.

Our neighbour in the campground was a NZer now living in the States. He was home and touring around NZ in a unique way--travelling along the coast, surf fishing. This sounds like a great way to explore NZ and, if you knew where to fish, would take you off the beaten track.


Sunday - Visiting Cape Reinga - a sacred Maori area, and we lose some hotdogs

After a night of poor sleep and a morning filled with bad mosquitoes, we were on the road pretty early and arrived at Cape Reinga around 9:30, well before the multitude of crowded tour buses.

Cape Reinga is pretty much the northern most point in mainland New Zealand. When you look out from the lighthouse at Cape Reinga you can see where waters from the Tasman Sea (west) meet with the southern Pacific Ocean (east). There is a an area of strong current, white water and standing waves. If you think about what you are witnessing and what those oceans and seas represent, it stirs your imagination. Quite moving.

Looking north from Cape Reinga. You can see the
meeting of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean to the left.

Cape Reinga is also a very spiritual place for the Maori. In Maori it is 'Te Rerenga Wairua' (leaping-off place of spirits). As I understand it (I deeply apologize for any mistakes), after dying, the soul travels north to Cape Reinga and then leaps off the hill/cliff overlooking the ocean. From their it falls into a 800 year old pohutukawa tree and climbs down the tree's roots into the underworld. After that the soul follows a spirit pathway back to the Maori's homeland, Hawaiki. You are not supposed to eat, drink or smoke while visiting Cape Reinga. (Pohutukawa trees are like eastern white cedar, they can grow in pretty tough conditions like the sides of cliffs.)

Cape Reinga is very interesting. I felt a real connection with the land and sea during our time there and I am glad we took the time to visit it. Throughout the site are subtle and well-placed signs that tell you different things about Cape Reinga, such as about its importance to the Maori, legends, wildlife, and exploration history of NZ.

After viewing Cape Reinga itself we walked down a steep path to Te Werahi Beach (on the west side of the cape). Some biggish waves were rolling in, crashing on the beach and the volcanic rock cliffs around it. We spent quite awhile there just walking around and talking. After a bit, Karen turned back to the start of the beach to relax and enjoy the waves. Marshall and I kept walking farther down the beach. After we turned around we realized the tide had been coming in. We walked and ran the kilometre back to Karen and we all had to climb some rocks to get above the tide and reach the trail head. Karen said if we had been much longer she would have been heading to the highground without us. We didn't blame her. The only downside to the walk, especially from Marshall's point of view, is that Cape Reinga is about 400 metres above the beach. It was a bit of a workout climbing back up.

Travel note - Cape Reinga is a very popular tourist site and a lot of tour buses come there every day. They say it receives 120,000 visitors a year. I am not sure what the departing souls think about that, but I am glad we arrived early and were able to take it all in when it was quiet. I was saying to Karen and Marshall afterwards that I was glad we took the time to walk down to Te Werahi Beach. First, it helped us experience the area more than most people do (as I told Marshall, if 100 people visited Cape Reinga, only 1 person (or fewer) would walk down to the beach). Second, I believed it was a more respectful way to visit Cape Reinga. Something about zooming in, taking a few pictures, and leaving wouldn't have worked for me.

After Cape Reinga we drove south and east to visit and camp at Matauri Bay. Along the way we stopped at a popular fish and chips restaurant in Mangonui (on Doubtless Bay) and had a late lunch. There is a good reason why it is popular. Again, delish. We should have got less chips (french fries) and more fish though.

Campground rating - First off, Matauri Bay has a great beach, shallow, perfect for swimming. (I know it sounds like every beach/bay we visit is spectacular. What can I say, NZ has a lot of them--think Hawaii on a bigger scale but without the warm water.) However, as I said to Karen, if there is a camping hell, this is it for me. The campground was simply rows of trailers and tents packed in cheek to jowl (Marshall really got a kick out of this description). To me, the lack of privacy was very unnerving. Part of the problem is that we only had our little three man tent so we had to do everything, particularly cook and eat, out in the open. By the end of our stay I had tent envy. Some of the tents can only be described as canvas mansions. There was nothing wrong with the facilities (private campground by the way). The showers were hot and fairly clean. There was a big kitchen, etc. I just don't like being separated from my camping neighbours by 2 metres or less. Some people must like it, the place was packed. I am sure a lot of the people are regular guests. There were lots of big groups of friends and family spending the long weekend together, but sorry to say I'm not sure if I like my friends and family enough to spend more than one night "camping" like that.

[Side story - My friend Dean will not be surprised by the above as he knows my penchant for simple, quiet camping. For a few Springs I joined up with him and friends to go camping in May and fish for lake trout. However, silently, or perhaps not so silently, these weekends drove me crazy. It seemed much more time was devoted to meal and drink planning and preparation than fishing. By silent agreement I came to be no longer invited on these trips. Sad but true, I am a camping snob.]

In the end we couldn't give this campground a rating. It wasn't Marshall's favourite but it wasn't the worst to him either. And to be fair it was pretty quiet in the campground after 10:30.

One final funny story about our stay. Because our ice had melted we left some of our food in the community fridge. That night was the Sunday night of a long weekend and there were some festivities going on on the beach. We guess someone got the munchies because in the morning our remaining hotdogs were gone. They weren't very good so no real loss.


Monday - From camping hell to paradise

In the morning we packed up and then spent time in a small bay behind the campground snorkelling, looking for shells and having an early picnic. After that we walked up to a lookout that overlooks Matauri Bay and the area. Great view (more about that in a moment) but the other reason we climbed up was to see the monument to the Greenpeace ship - the Rainbow Warrior III.

The Rainbow Warrior was blown up in 1985 in Auckland Harbour by a unit of France's special forces. Greenpeace was protesting France's testing of  nuclear weapons on French controlled islands located in the South Pacific. Greenpeace was going to sail their ship to the islands/atoll as a way of preventing the test. France wanted to stop this, so it decided to blow up the ship. Unfortunately, a Greenpeace activist was killed in the explosion. Because of this there was a real concerted effort to find out who blew up the ship and the French plot was exposed. The Rainbow Warrior was later brought to the Matauri Bay area and sunk to form an artificial reef which is now a popular dive location. Hence the monument.

Given Karen's and my affinity for environmental protection, we both wanted to see the monument. I am not sure what she thought, but I took a moment to reflect on and thank the efforts and devotion of groups like Greenpeace and people like Fernando Pereira (man killed in explosion).

Looking out from the monument we could see the Cavalli Islands, some of which are quite close to Matauri Bay. We all wished we had ocean kayaks then so that we could paddle and explore the many small bays and beaches below us and out on the islands. Next time.

After Matauri Bay we drove to KeriKeri, a small city, to get a few groceries and so Karen could take care of an important email. (It really was, one of her students wasn't going to get paid.) There are a lot of orchards around KeriKeri and it seemed like a pretty prosperous place.

Brief interlude - We got along very well and had a lot of fun together on our trip, but you know after 5 days of travelling something is going to come up. So, picture if you will, the following scene:
- Family is in a van, husband driving, trying to leave KeriKeri. They are travelling on a different road than the one that brought them into town.
- After a minute or so of this, beautiful wife politely (really) asks, "Is this the right way?"
- Not so beautiful husband, "If I didn't think it was the right way would I be going this way?"
- Minute of silence while family continues travelling down unknown road. Cute, freckle-faced son in back seat paying most attention in a week to what his parents are saying.
- Van pulls suddenly into a side street. Map is consulted. Husband swears silently to himself as he turns van around. Family heads out of KeriKeri on same route it came into town on. Husband massages his own ego by thinking to himself, "Not how I would have designed it."
- Eternity of uncomfortable silence (5 minutes), husband and wife both looking straight ahead. Son still paying rapt but unwanted attention, waiting for next moment of choice dialogue between parents.
- Husband sees sign for macadamia nuts, knows beautiful wife loves macadamia nuts, and wheels in.
- Beautiful wife gives husband a funny look, gets out of van and returns with macadamia nuts.
- Beautiful wife, "These are good." Cute son, "Mmm hmm." Not so beautiful husband, "Yes, the are," meanwhile thinking to himself, "Damn I'm good."
- Family, happy once again, resumes road trip.

Joy - no more driving today

Our destination for Monday was a DOC campground at Mimiwhangata Coastal Park. It just sounded so idyllic to me - quiet beach, no camper vans, you have to carry your stuff to the campground, etc. The drive in however was far from idyllic. The road into the park is a long stretch of unpaved, windy, single lane road, a good portion of which skirts along a cliff (not a mountain, but a long way down none the less). Karen did not enjoy this drive at all as she was the one overlooking the cliff.

Campground rating - scenery - 5, campground quality - 2.5 (outhouse-like toilets, coldwater showers, but the swimming was excellent), and noisiness  - 5 (just the waves and some morepork owls hooting all night.I even heard a male kiwi call once). I think you can tell that from our point of view the drive in was worth it. The road ends at a beautiful bay and beach. After you park your car you have to carry your gear up and down a small hill into a smaller, more sheltered bay. Once there, you pitch your tent almost right on the beach. After Matauri Bay this was paradise for me--we were only one of 5 tents in the campground that night. (It sounds like we got a bit lucky arriving on the Monday night of a long weekend. One of the other remaining campers told me it had been pretty busy there over the rest of the weekend.) Because we were only staying one night and had to leave early the next day for our snorkeling trip, we did not carry our food, stove, etc. in. We simply cooked by our van and ate our dinner on the first beach. Sitting there, looking out, eating dinner, I felt so fortunate. After supper Marshall and I went for a swim at both beaches while Karen took pictures and enjoyed sitting and digging her toes in the sand. We all wished we had got there earlier in the day, rather than at 6:00. If only we knew.
 

Mimiwhangata at sunset


 Tuesday - Snorkeling at the Poor Knights Islands

We were awake at 7:00 and packed up and at our van by 7:30. Being ahead of schedule for once we took the time to eat our breakfast on the beach. I think I could get used to eating granola while sitting on a sunny beach. After that we drove the treacherous road back to the highway, which seemed easier driving out compared to going in. From there it took us a little over an hour to drive to Tutukaka where we were taking our snorkeling tour from. Attached to the dive shop is a nice restaurant. After 5 days of camping coffee, Karen really enjoyed her coffee that morning.

We went with a company called Dive! Tutukaka, which has a really good reputation. Although pricey, we think it is well deserved. The boat and food was top-notch (with hot showers for after snorkeling, a real treat). The crew was friendly, professional, and informative. We really enjoyed our day with them.

We left the dock around 11:00 and got out to the Poor Knights Islands a little after noon. We had perfect weather, sunny but not too hot, and calm. Perfect for snorkeling and being out on a boat.

On the way out we slowed down to see some common porpoises ride the bow wave and frolic around. A nice addition to the day. Once at Poor Knights, Marshall was anxious to snorkel, so we were in the water right away.

The waters around Poor Knights Islands are a marine reserve (1981). The water is sub-tropical (still cold), so there are a lot of fish species there. It is considered one of the top diving spots in the world. The snorkeling was excellent as well. Because the water is cold, there is no coral there. Instead, you have a bottom of lava rocks, sand, and kelp. Different than we have snorkeled elsewhere. We didn't see the same variety of fish, or colours, that we have seen other places. However, never have I snorkeled in a place where the fish were so abundant--teeming would be a good word. One of the neatest things we saw was a huge school of trevally. We also swam through an arch which was really cool and had a lot of fish under it. There are more fish in the shade, such as under the arch or right along the cliff face, than out in the open. They are hiding from gannets, a diving bird, who can't see them in the shade.

After about 30 minutes we were all pretty cold, even with wetsuits, so we headed in to warm up and have some lunch. After that Karen went out exploring in a kayak while Marshall and I went back in for another look around. After we got out, Karen picked us up and we went for a quick paddle into a giant cave (very wide open) that she had explored and really wanted us to see before the boat went there. We had fun yelling and listening to the echoes by ourselves.

From there (2ish) they took us on a boat tour around the islands, explaining their natural and cultural history. (The islands themselves are a nature preserve and there are stiff penalties for stepping foot on them.) One story we were told is that the islands used to be home to a tribe of Maori. This tribe had pigs, which had been given to them by explorers. A chief from a mainland tribe travelled a long way to come out to the island and trade for some pigs. The chief with the pigs apparently said no (big insult) and sent the pigless chief packing. Somehow the pigless tribe found out the men from the island were going raiding somewhere. The pigless tribe went to the island and killed everyone left behind (and presumably took all the pigs they could). When the men came back they laid a curse on the islands and left forever. The islands have been tapu (forbidden) ever since.

Some of the arches at Poor Knights Islands

Despite this chilling story we had a great day (a highlight amongst highlights). Next time I would go diving vs. snorkeling and wear a wetsuit hood.

Campground rating - After Tutukaka we drove about an hour to the city of Whangarei. Here we stayed at another Top 10 campground, scenery 3, facilities 4 (no swimming), noise 3.5 (it is in the city so you hear some street traffic).

After dinner we went for a walk on some trails behind the campground. After a bit we came to a sign that said, Lookout - 40 m. Karen and I assumed this meant 40 metres, or the trail for it started in 40 metres. Wrong. 40 m means 40 minutes of continuous climbing. After a long day, walk was a four-letter word to certain members of our family. In my defense I never said we had to climb to the lookout, only that I was going to. What really burned Marshall was that you could drive to the lookout by a different route and that there were people enjoying the view who had not walked the 40 minutes. He felt they didn't deserve the reward. When we got back to the start of the trail we read the sign again. It still said 40 m, but if you looked closely someone had pencilled in 40 minutes, which someone else had crossed out and pencilled in 40 miles. Always read the fine print.


Wednesday - We come home

After packing up we toured some of the art shops in Whangerei (Marshall was thrilled). From there we drove down the coast to Waipu Beach (kids love this name) for one more swim and a picnic. After a drizzly start the sun came out and we had a lot of fun. Waipu Beach is a well-know surfing beach so Marshall and I had a lot of fun splashing in the big waves. This was Marshall's first chance to use his body board.

After that it was a quiet drive home.

One happy Kidd

One more story though about the Waipu area. Earlier I mentioned the mosquitoes at Tapotupotu Bay. These were the only bugs, other than a few sand flies, that we encountered on our trip. So far NZ seems pretty bug free. Because of this I have said if I was an English settler, NZ would have been my first choice. Think about it, Canada - cold winters and lots of bugs, Australia - hot, dry, criminals, and lots of poisonous animals, NZ - more moderate climate, fewer bugs, although you are a long way from England. I am glad I live in Canada now, but to have been a settler would have been pretty rough.

Apparently I am not the only one who thought this way. A group of Scottish settlers created a community in St. Ann's,  Nova Scotia. In the early 1850's some of the settlers had had enough of the cold weather (and other problems) so they built ships and sailed to Australia to start a new community. Once there they found it not to their liking (a gold rush was bringing a bad element to Adelaide). So they packed up once again and settled in the Waipu area in NZ. In the end, almost 1000 people moved from St. Ann's to Waipu.


The End

For those of you who have made it this far (sorry about the novel), that was our tour of the New Zealand Northlands in a not so brief nutshell. Simply put, we had a great time and we saw a lot of amazing sites. Definitely a part of New Zealand any visitor should spend some time exploring.

Next up, our weekend in Raglan and at a hot water beach. Then, our weekend in Whirinaki Forest.