Weather Woes for the Holidays- Far North

Catch-up

We packed up and left Houhora before the forecast heavy storm arrived. We'd decided it would be best to return to the NZMCA Park at Tokerau Beach, park up there and sit the wild weather out along with the Christmas/New Year busy holiday period. 

With the top half of the North Island on a wild weather alert we didn't expect too may campers to arrive at Tokerau over the next few days. And we were right, there was just one other caravan on site when we arrived two days before Christmas and a only a handful of others trickled in over the next few days. This time we parked in the top corner overlooking the horse paddock and with just a peep of the beach behind. Just as we finished setting up, big fat rain drops started to fall and rogue gusts of wind rocked the van. The rain became torrential and the wind more constant... 

...and that was how it was for the next two & half days, a solid wall of rain bucketing down on us from the heavens above. We watched as the creek filled the floodway up and quickly grew wider and wider as it flowed through the back of neighbouring sections and into the NZMCA Park drain. We saved a few trips to the local fire station to get fresh water by collecting bucket loads of it off the awning overflow. We'd only just empty one bucket and it'd be full again within seconds; in the end our water tank was overflowing and the ground around us started to flood too.

Christmas Day was wet although we did get to see a gap in the thick grey blanket of a sky late in the afternoon. And we actually had a lovely day even though we were by ourselves. Of course we missed the family scattered around the country & overseas but we enjoyed the relaxed pace of being forced to stay indoors and preparing and eating a smaller Christmas dinner than we'd normally have.

Before we knew it Boxing Day arrived, the rain moved on, summer resumed and a few more campers arrived. And in fact Christmas Day was the last day of any significant rain we had for nearly five months as we travelled around the Far North, Northland, the Coromandel, the Bay of Plenty and Hawkes Bay. 

Over the next few days an assortment of RVs arrived and, with plenty of space available on both sides of the drain, found themselves a spot in the sun.

Most were keen to check out Tokerau Beach as soon as they were set up and it didn't take them long to find the lovely wide grassed track that took them straight to the beach (a road separates the track entrance from the beach). The Park may not be quite beachfront but it's a pretty close second and I'd say it will quickly become one of many people's favourite parks. 

From the camp I managed to photograph a number of sunsets which were just as spectacular as the sunrises I captured from the beach on the last visit.

Released from our 'cabin fever' Christmas we decided to head into Mangonui and... 

... have another lovely fish 'n chip lunch at the 'famous in NZ' Mangonui Fish Shop again.

Lunch from our previous visit

Of course we didn't allow for a throng of holidaymakers who had the same idea! The queue came out the door and ran off down the footpath. 

We gave that idea away, purchased some of their delicious Raw Fish Salad for later and wandered back through the village, checking out the fishermen on the wharf and dodging people, dogs and vehicles along the narrow road through the village shops. All the cafes and the hotel were overflowing with people enjoying the holiday atmosphere. Before we left for home, I climbed the steep road and then several flights of steps up behind the village to photograph a church that had a fabulous view over the Mangonui Harbour. 

On the last day of 2018 we went on a tiki-tour around the Karikari Peninsula, calling in on some of the beaches we'd visited just a few weeks before. And what a transformation! The DOC camp at Maitai Bay had the full sign out although there were still a few spaces here and there. I guess some campers would have cancelled due to the weather and others were still to arrive after New Years Eve. 

The boat ramp and carparks were full and a small tent town had taken over all the camping bays at both the top & lower camps. When we stayed here at the beginning of the month there was just us and a couple of small tourist vans.

Waikato & Maitai Bays are side by side at the top of the Karikari Peninsula, both with beautiful golden sand crescent shaped beaches. There weren't too many people on the beach at Waikato Bay on this day but many more than the deserted beach we'd seen on our last visit.

And a sure sign that holiday makers & summer had arrived was the icecream van tucked up in the corner of the bay.

I did get the shock of my life when I climbed up to the top of the small ridge between the two bays...

...to see that Maitai Bay was full of people; swimming, sunbathing, picnicking and playing on the beach. 

A bit of a contrast to the last time I looked over the side. 

And even though the beach was busy (relatively so), there was still plenty of room at the north end of the bay.

We left Maitai to the masses and headed off back down the peninsula; I wanted to show David the stunning beach I had found when I went exploring during our last stay at Tokerau. This time we took a shortcut that I knew about but hadn't managed to drive last time because there was a large deep muddy bog blocking my way. I wasn't game enough to drive through it without David (to help get me out if I got stuck). 

You'll see it on the map below, Waimango Road is a public 'road' although there are a couple of unlocked gates to open & close. The surprise is at the end of the gravel straight where it has been left to the elements and farm vehicles.  From there on it's mostly a bumpy, dusty dirt track but a section of it skirts around the edge of a large swamp and that was where I'd come to a halt at the bog. This time the bog had mostly dried up (even with the recent rain) and I'm not so sure it was a 'shortcut' even though it  cut off about 10kms. It probably would have been quicker to take the longer route but hey, where's the fun in that?

The dirt track exited onto Puheke Road, the road that leads to one of my favourite beaches in the Far North. Last time I visited it there hadn't been a soul in sight; I had the whole beach to myself. Today I felt like, "Hey you guys get off my beach, you're spoiling the perfectness!"

In reality, there were just a few families enjoying a sunny day (and roughing up my perfectly smooth sand with their games). 

We drove up a gravel track to the top of the hill beside the beach (Mt Puheke- up here in the Far North where the sandy land is mostly flat, they call any sizeable hill a mountain). The carpark overlooked beautiful Puheke Beach in one direction...

...with a breath-taking view overlooking Karikari Moana (Bay) and the white sand and large dunes of Karikari Beach in the other. 

These are the large white sand dunes with the wetland and dune lake behind, that can be seen from the Maitai Bay road, and from the villas and hotel rooms of Carrington Estate (below).

We were amazed to see that a group of people had set up their tents (which looked to include the proverbial kitchen sink) on the slope below the carpark; a perfect spot overlooking the bay but I'm not so sure it would be comfortable sleeping on a slope. We were also surprised at how steep the track past the tents and down to the rocks below was, and then to see a ute and fishermen at the bottom. Hopefully they have good tyre grip to get back up the slope on the slippery grass.

And while I'm talking about being amazed, the next surreal sight was an ambulance arriving with it's lights flashing. What the heck? They were quick to ask if anyone had called 111, no one in the carpark had so they drove down to the tents, no one there had either. They'd come all the way from Mangonui, 40 minutes away and were just about to leave after checking back with base when over the rise from the direction of Karikari Beach came a young woman huffing and puffing.

The patient was stuck down in the rocks; he'd speared himself in the leg with his speargun while clambering over the rocks and he couldn't walk. The young woman found him and his mate on her way back up from the beach.

One of the ambulance officers set off down the track to find and attend to the guy while the other called back to base, a Mangonui firetruck would have to come out (another 40 minute trip), so the firefighters could stretcher the guy out. He'd be spending his New Years Eve in hospital, or at least in the out-patients no doubt.

And what were they looking at? (for those that follow my Facebook page), they were watching the paramedic heading off down the track.

On the way back down the road we stopped for one last photo overlooking Puheke Beach and then headed home (the long way round) for a quite New Years Eve.

On New Years Day  I was preparing dinner when I spotted out the back window, a tiny wisp of smoke on the otherside of Doubtless Bay around the Taipa area. It quickly grew and within a couple of hours smoke was billowing across the bay. I could see a couple of helicopters flying around and the orange glow of a large fire that had quickly spread through the tinder dry scrub. I later read that there were 5 fire trucks in attendance & 2 helicopters and it took over four hours to bring under control.

You may have noticed in the photos that between the NZMCA Park and the beach is a large horse paddock which held a dozen horses, most of them looked like retired race horses. Now, does this look the face of innocence? 

The horses provided quite a bit of entertainment each day as they made their way around the paddock grazing together, chasing each other, annoying each other, scratching each others back, checking any campers dogs out and generally being nosy.

So we couldn't stop laughing when we came home one day to see that one of the horses had ripped and chewed a great hole in the neighbours shirt which he'd hung on the fence. It does say in the shed not to hang washing on the fences (a standard rule in all NZMCA Parks), and it also said not to feed the horses! I chuckled even louder when the neighbour arrived later to see what had happened and commented that it was the only shirt he had with him! 

Wasn't me he said as he peered through the hole.

Sand, Sea & Sunrises- Tokerau Beach

Catch-up

From Maitai Bay we moved back down the Karikari Peninsula to Tokerau Beach where the sunrises are spectacular.

We decided we'd stay at the Tokerau Beach NZMCA Park rather than the freedom camping area further down at Ramp Rd; we did take a look but found it was quite busy with all the relatively flat areas in amongst the sand dunes taken. And the track in was also very uneven with large dips and holes full of water. There were a couple of places we may have squeezed into but we didn't feel like upsetting the neighbours. 

The NZMCA Park is a large site, with access to Tokerau Beach down a short grassy track between a horse paddock and an orchard. We parked near the back fence which will soon be a lovely green natural fence; a great way to soften the boundary between neighbours. I did have a chuckle to myself though when I saw that the native climber Tecomanthe/Three Kings Vine has been planted.

There's no holding them back once they stop sulking about being disturbed, it'll be like the day of the triffids when their strong vines head out. I had several vines growing on my pergolas in Tauranga and I very nearly had to take a chainsaw to them to keep them contained.

The Tecomathe is not so rare now that it has come to suburbia but once there was only one lone plant in existence. It was discovered on Three Kings Islands, 55 km off the northern tip of New Zealand during a scientific survey in 1945. No other specimens have ever been found in the wild and all existing vines have come about after the original plant was propagated.

They do have beautiful pale green creamy white flowers that hang like bunches of grapes from the underneath of the vines, they burst directly out of the branches at odd spots along the length (even though it's known as a vine, it's actually a tree with vine like branches). The flowers have a very faint perfume during the evenings.

I loved the Gumdiggers Hut that the local NZMCA Branch have made for the sign-in kiosk; it's great to see some creative flair in our parks. And like other parks there was a lovely little herb & flower garden growing behind the shed, always a welcome treat to those of us that live on the road full-time.

When we arrived at the Park there was just one other caravan on site. As we stopped to decide where to park, a couple came out of the caravan towards us waving. We didn't recognise them but they obvious knew who we were, they have been following our travels for quite some time. 'We knew our paths would cross one day' they said.

Ken & Sandra are David's nephew's in-laws and we'd last seen them at the nephew's wedding 25 years ago even though they travel regularly around New Zealand and holidayed alongside David's sister & husband in their motorhome for a number of years. We had a great time catching up over the following week or so, enjoying a few happy hours and comparing fishing & travel stories.

Some of you will recognise this stunning sunset photo over the Tokerau Beach Park, it appears as the opening page photo on my latest article in the April/May NZMCA Motor Caravanner magazine which has just been released. 

Tokerau Beach itself is a beautiful wide sandy beach that stretches for miles in a large curve around the western side of Doubtless Bay. 

Other than the seaside settlement of Tokerau Beach at the top of the bay...

 ....the rest of the coastline is deserted; just waves, sand and dunes for as far as the eye can see. Vehicles are allowed to drive along the beach and at low tide there's a steady stream of cars, utes, boats on trailers, motorbikes, quad bikes and even a few motorhomes driving up and down the beach (motorhomes are actually not allowed but that didn't stop a few hire vans from trying it out).

I didn't have to wait long for a subject to enter my frame anytime I visited the beach, sometimes it was like Piccadilly Station! You'll remember Coca-cola Lake from my last post and its tannin stained water, well this is a tannin stained stream which flows out to sea in front of the NZMCA Park. And yes it's naturally stained and yes, it's safe to swim in (if it was deep enough).

While at Tokerau Beach we drove over to the otherside of the  Karikari Peninsula to check out another 'secret' freedom camping area.

Once through the small settlement of Rangiputa, the road ends at a DOC reserve, a track continues on through the reserve to a small sandy point. Rangiputa forms one side of the entrance to the huge & shallow Rangaunu Harbour. Apparently there is good fishing off this point and along the nearby shoreline. 

It is a very pretty spot and I can see it's appeal in the off season when there might be one or two vans parked up. But I've seen photos of vans packed higgledy-piggledy into this tiny space which has very few level areas; I'm afraid that has no appeal to us at all. I also wonder at the sign at the entrance to the DOC reserve, a sign with a a line through a tent which means 'No Camping'. Now, does that mean tents only or all camping? I'm sure everyone who stays here would suggest it's for tents only....

On our way home we came across the Tokerau version of a traffic jam, sheep from Rangiputa Station being shifted.

I had spotted a church out at Merita near Maitai Bay when we were staying there, so I went on my own tikitour back out to check it out. I decided, after speaking to a couple we'd met at Maitai and who were also parked up at Rangiputa when we visited, to take the Whatuwhiwhi Road around the outside of the peninsula. They had driven the road in their motorhome, in the opposite direction, most of it had been through a pine plantation. 

I had read that it was a private road but they said they got through, there were a couple of gates to open which weren't locked. Unfortunately I didn't turn off when I should have and found myself driving down into a private little settlement at the end of the road. Uh-oh, I went to back up and found a car behind me. I smiled sweetly and said I was looking for a church I'd seen, he told me I'd have to drive back to the main road and go the usual way round. I spotted the sign saying 'Private Road' a mile or so back and passed the pine forest road the others had taken- private also!

So after that rigmarole when I finally did get to the church, I couldn't decide if the rough gravel track up to it was private or not, there were no signs. Having come this far there was no turning back....until I found myself in the front garden of a house, and the church in a paddock further on! Uh-oh again, I did a quick 20 point turn and headed back down where I decided a long shot of the church was the best I was going to get today! 

At the top of the peninsula near the turnoff into the Maitai Bay DOC Camp, the road carries on straight ahead, this one really is private and there are large signs saying so. Instead I took a nearby side track which I bumped and slid along until I reached an area that resembled a carpark.  This is on the west side of the peninsula overlooking Karikari Beach and all the way along to Puheke Beach beyond the hill which in turn is actually not too far as the crow flies from Rangaputa. This is the beach that the Carrington Resort overlooks (see previous blog). There's a short sandy track down to the beach but it's blowing a gale today so I'll only stop to take in the views.

I drove back down the peninsula and decided while I was out exploring I needed to visit another beach I'd read about.  I did take a short-cut but decided that discretion was the better part of valour and turned around when I found a large deep bog in front of me while trying to get around the edge of a large swamp (I'd also heard about the short-cut from the couple in the motorhome, they had tried to drive it too but the track had become too rugged for them). 

So I took the long way round- actually the same road that takes you to Rangiputa but I turned off a few kilometres beforehand and eight kilometres of gravel later...

...I found myself on the most stunning beach I've seen so far on our travels. 

This is beautiful Puheke Beach and I had it all to myself! Squeaky white sand and crystal clear turquoise waters, it's looked like a tropical paradise. I wasn't brave enough to go for a swim, it wasn't quite warm enough. but the sand was lovely and warm so I sat down near the top of a dune for awhile, watching the clouds as they rolled and tumbled past overhead, chased by a squall I could see coming from Mt Camel's direction.

And what are the chances of this? Only in New Zealand. On the way home I came across the same traffic jam as the other day.

Of course a visit to the Far North wouldn't be complete without a stop at the 'famous in New Zealand'  fish and chip shop at Mangonui. I say 'famous in New Zealand' but in fact from the cross section of people lined up to buy lunch this place is now world famous and on many tourists 'must do' list, such is the hype generated by social media and review sites (she says ironically).

The restaurant's location adds to the character & atmosphere of the place- perched on poles over the harbour with a covered deck where you can have your meal watching fishing boats come and go from the nearby wharf.  Fishing boats that bring the restaurant it's daily supply of fresh fish and in particular Bluenose, the Mangonui's Fish Shop's specialty.

Can you see David patiently waiting....for his lunch! 

The meal was excellent, fresh thick fillets of fish and crispy hot chips- although I would say a little on the small size for a serving of an iconic Kiwi dish. And because I was missing our Puriri Bay freshly caught snapper, I also bought a large tub of kokoda (raw fish salad) to take home. Rather expensive but well worth it and nearly as nice as my own home-made salad!

After lunch we took a leisurely stroll around the charming historic harbourside settlement of Mangonui. We didn't know it yet, but we returned to Mangonui later on in our travels, during the New Year holiday season. What a transformation! The queue for fish 'n chips was at least 20 deep and trailed off down the footpath, there wasn't a carpark to be found, traffic was bumper to bumper in and out of the village, every other cafe & eatery was bursting at the seams and there were people everywhere! It's times like this that I am thankful that we can visit these popular places outside of the holiday season.

Tokerau Beach sunrises really were worth getting out of bed for... 

...although I think much of the population had the same idea which was fine as they made great subjects as they passed by...

...although I had to pan fast to catch this guy. It never fails to amaze me what I get to see in the golden gloom of sunrise.

You may recall the post I did in real-time on the dolphin stranding at Tokerau Beach, I took the fire truck photo the morning after and I'm pretty sure they were driving the length of the beach to check that there had been no further strandings overnight.

Before this post gets any longer than it already is, here's one final photo from beautiful Tokerau Beach; sunrise on the pohutukawa trees that were just starting to bloom along the beach.