Beach Hop North- Another Wharf & Another Bay

Catch-up

From Anaura Bay it's just 30kms to Tokomaru Bay where we visited another very long historic wharf, this one in need of some tender loving care too.

Tokomaru Bay wharf is 366 metres long; the condition of the concrete and rail length of the wharf isn't too bad but it may be too late to restore the wooden piles and missing deck in the dog leg at the end which is closed off with a chain-link fence. 

Just above the wharf there are a number of derelict and old buildings associated with past industry in Tolomaru Bay; the old freezing works...

and the NZ Shipping Company store and offices (click the photo to enlarge), amongst others.

Anyone looking for a new 5th-wheeler? 

Tokomaru Bay is also on the Gisborne District Council camping permit list; there are two areas, a north site and a south site (see the map below) and at both sites there are several areas along the beach front where you can stay but many are across the road from residents houses. I always feel a bit mean parking in their view though it wasn't going to be a problem for us this time as we were heading further on to another bay for the night.

Tokomaru Bay- North Camp

Before we left Tokomaru we made a quick stop back in the village so I could take a photo of the historic St Mary's Church built in 1884. What a lovely little church, very rustic and very kiwi with corrugated iron walls and roof.

Our next destination is just north of Te Puia Springs but we were talking too much and trying to decide if the large pond on the side of the road just north of the settlement was in fact the 'spring' that we missed the turnoff and had to travel a few kilometres before we could safety turn around and head back to the side road. And the road to our next camp site is no different to all the other side roads we've taken; narrow, winding, with plenty of blind corners and dropping quickly to the coastline.

Te Puia Springs Hotel

Waipiro Bay is a another tiny forgotten settlement that has seen better times, it also has a number of abandoned buildings.  

Waipiro Bay also has a beautiful church with the most amazing view out over the bay; St Abraham's was built in 1926. I smiled when I saw the flowering Myrtle tree in the corner, normally I wouldn't have a clue what tree it was but I know where there is a similar sized one taking pride of place in the centre of a garden, pruned and shaped to perfection by Dad.

And as is the case with most of the churches on the East Coast (and in many others areas too), they are part and parcel of the local Marae. I've said to David a few times that I would love to make a project out of photographing all the beautiful Wharenui/Meeting Houses we pass on our travels. Often they can't be seen clearly from the road so I'd need to get permission to shoot them and that would be a bit of a hassle.

Meeting houses and woolsheds, they'll be on my next 'obsession' list, when I've finished shooting churches and swing-bridges!

David comes looking for me, I've left him up on the road near the Trading Company ruins. It was just going to be a short walk down to the church to take a couple of photos but I'm taking longer than usual and he's worried he's blocking the road with the rig (it's not like it's Piccadilly Station or anything, we haven't seen another vehicle since we turned of the main highway).

I try and take any photos as soon as I get the opportunity because nine times out of ten Murphy's Law kicks in; either the weather turns to custard, we take a different route out when we leave, vehicles park in front of the subject or a number of other reasons and I miss the chance to get a good shot. So I get the church photo out of the way before we head to the camp site.

The road turns to gravel and it's now looking more like a dirt track. We worry about where it leads as we climb a short rise and then turn hard right towards the beach, will we be able to turn around. Have we in fact got the right place.

The road turns to mud as it climbs another rise right above the beach and we see a car is waiting for us to pass before it can proceed. David winds down the window and asks if there's a McDonalds up here. That breaks the ice and the guy, who must have been wondering what on earth was coming over the rise towards him (probably thinking mad buggers!) has a large smile on his face and points us in the direction of the grassy reserve ahead. 

Except we drive right on by the reserve and across the ford, thinking there might be another camping area further up. There are no signs at the first area.

Once across the ford we realise that there are no more grassy reserves and the road ends not too far ahead. There's also no turning areas so there's nothing for it but to back up. Hence the reason I'm out of the ute and directing David back across the ford (and taking photos!) 

We find a reasonably level spot right on the edge overlooking the beach... 

...with magnificent views to the right... 

...and left.

With, once again, the whole place to ourselves. Where are all these campers we've been hearing about in the North Island?  

We're still worried we haven't got the right place as there are no signs, although there is a concrete tank toilet near us. The council pamphlet shows the camping site is back up the road- on the little flat patch of  grass you can see in the top photo below but when I check it out later it looks like a squatter has set up camp and claimed the area for himself. 

I check for photos on the internet and find a few with caravans and motorhomes parked up along the reserve where we are. Someone has conveniently (for them) removed the sign that I see in a photo which was next to the toilet.

We're now happy and we settle down for the day. Later on I catch 'Nigel Mo Mates' having a happy hour swing. 

It's a fiery start to the day next morning; after a slow start to the day, we pack up and head off again, inching our way closer to East Cape.  Waipiro Bay is the last of the Gisborne District Council  permitted freedom camping sites heading north and the final one we stay in. Within a couple of weeks, this and a few of the other permit sites will be closed for winter; I'm sure I can hear a collective sigh of relief from the locals.

Beach Hop North- Kaiaua & Anaura Bays

Catch-up

The weather still hadn't settled after a wet and windy day at Tolaga Bay but we decided to head off anyway, it was just a 10km hop, skip & jump to our next camp at Kaiaua Bay, another freedom camping site that is on the Gisborne District Council permit.

Kaiaua Bay, East Coast

The road into the bay was once again a narrow winding country road; although this one really was narrow in a couple of places where wash-outs had taken out the roadside. I've only just noticed the width of our lane in this photo!

A gravel road runs along the front of the bay with a narrow grassy strip separating it from the beach. A long section of the strip is available for camping although much of it is uneven. 

Pam & Gerald (relatives we'd been with in Gisborne) were heading here when they left Gisborne but had reported back that they'd only stayed one night due to the weather; they had been wind and sand blasted and the motorhome had rocked and rolled all night. It is a very exposed site sitting up on the sand bank above the crashing waves. It was still raining on and off , blowing a gale and quite bleak outdoors so we decided we'd head on too. 

The next camp in our sights was just another 21kms further on and it's NOT on the Gisborne District Council camping permit. There are two campsites at beautiful Anaura Bay, one a commercial campground and the other a DOC camp. 

As with the other secluded bays we've visited, the road in is relatively short, 6-8kms, narrow and winding. Anaura has a short sharp climb to the top of the hill before a winding descent down into the bay. We stopped so I could take a photo at the top of the climb but the day was still overcast and murky....so we also stopped on the way out, so I had a sunny day shot for the blog.

The ground underfoot at the DOC camp site was very boggy with a few muddy tracks where people had attempted to drive and a lot of surface water laying across the large site; it was still raining off and on. Gumboots on, we squelched our way through the grass looking for a relatively dry area to park.

One of the tracks led through a gate out onto the sand bank beside a small lagoon. I checked out the signs at the gate and with nothing mentioned about not being allowed to camp out there, I beckoned David to drive on through. 

It was the perfect spot to park; high and dry with good drainage through the sand, and with great views over the lagoon and out to sea.

After we'd set up camp (you can just see the rig through the trees below) David went for a walk and came back in a fluster. 'Didn't you see the 'No Camping sign?' he asked me. I swear I didn't, I told him about the dog and tsunami signs but.......can you see it?

We made an executive decision and decided to stay put. Which is not like us; although we moan and grumble about some restrictions we come across in our travels, we usually conform to the norm (I say usually but there have been a few times we've bucked the system, though those stories are for another day). 

We decided we couldn't be seen from the camp and we'd already watched a couple of campervans arrive and leave after deciding not to drive in through the muddy entrance. So we justified it in our minds that we'd likely be the only ones in the camp for the night, and hey, we just couldn't pull ourselves away from the view! 

It was not till much later (after the rain had stopped) that I had a wander around camp and back to the entrance where it also mentioned not to camp on the otherside of the fence. Oops....we lived dangerously for a night.

Anaura Bay was deserted, we saw just a couple of people walking along the beach later in the day and that was it, we had the place to ourselves. There are groups of  homes and holiday baches dotted along the road including a cluster in the corner of a small headland just up from the campground.

Where there also looks to have been/still is a farm homestead in behind an overgrown mass of huge trees and thick bamboo bordering the dunes, where hidden in amongst the greenery, I spotted an abandoned tree hut.

A strange thing happened on our doormat just before sunset; hundreds of tiny NZ mud snails came out of the long grass spreading themselves out across the mat and all over our Crocs. Once it was dark, they were gone.

Clearing skies and a rainbow short on colour were the last signs of rain just as the sun went down.

I was up early the next morning to catch another one of those magnificent East Coast sunrises...

...and it didn't disappoint. This time reflected in the lagoon as well, the sky and water were a blaze of fiery reds and oranges.

Even for me, the queen of sunrise shots, this one was nothing short of spectacular.

The oranges and reds were soon replaced with beautiful yellows as the golden globe poked it's head above the horizon...

...and behind me, as the dawn became day the pink hues of sunrise slowly disappeared...

...along with the lingering cloud to reveal a perfect blue sky day; one that was sure to bring people out and about. It was time to remove ourselves from our gorgeous but illicit little camp site.

We stopped near the commercial camp (which is in the old school grounds) on our way out of the bay to check the marker stone that commemorates the bicentenary of  British explorer James Cook making landfall in Anaura Bay on 21 October 1769.  

We had a slow trip out to the main road after coming up behind this chap as he tootled back to his farm totally oblivious to the us crawling along behind him. No matter, we're travelling in East Coast time now.  This is what we love about travelling the back roads, you never know what you're going to see next. 

Beach Hop North- A Whale & Loisels Beach, East Coast

Catch-up

I figured because I've done a 'Beach Hop South' series; when we stopped at all the beaches down the east coast south of Napier, I might as well call these next few blogs around the East Coast, the 'Beach Hop North' series.

Whangara Bay, East Coast

Gisborne District Council  is one of the more enlightened councils around New Zealand when it comes to freedom camping in their district. Rather than ban camping at their many lovely beaches, they have a permit system that allows camping at eight beaches (and one inland river site) for a small fee over the summer period (day-light saving months). 

There are basically 2 conditions; the maximum stay at any of the sites is 3 nights and whether in a tent or a vehicle, you must have a chemical toilet available to use. You do not need to be CSC (certified self contained) but must be self-contained. Most of the camps sites have a temporary cassette dump station available along with a public toilet. They also allow freedom camping (at no cost) at some of these beaches, but not all, over winter.

There are 3 different permits available, and a number of rubbish bags are supplied with each permit. These can be left for collection below the sign board on each site. We chose the $31 permit, $3.10 per night is a pretty good price to pay to be able to stay at some stunning camp sites, as we were soon to find out.

Cost	Nights - rubbish bags issued
$16	up to 2 nights - 1 rubbish bag
$31	over 2 nights up to 10 nights - 5 rubbish bags
$66	over 10 nights up to 28 nights - 14 rubbish bags

We decided not to stay at the first two beaches- Turihaua & Pouawa- as they were just 16kms and 18kms north of Gisborne city and while the beaches were lovely, the camping areas are long narrow strips alongside the road. These beaches are very popular with Gisborne locals over the summer holiday period and are usually wall to wall canvas and campervans. 

Before we arrived at our first night's camp we took a short detour to check out a special place; Whangara Bay (see the first photo). I've wanted to visit this little settlement of Whangara for a very long time. We missed it the last time we travelled down the coast in our regular car 7 years ago, it was getting late and we had to be in Gisborne before dark. I wasn't going to miss it this time, even though we had the 5th-wheeler on the back. The road in was very narrow and we got some strange stares as we passed a few houses on the way in.

Can you spot it? Sitting on the roof?

How about now? This is the home of the whale rider and the carving, atop the Whangara Marae, holds a very special place in the hearts of local Maori. The Whangara people believe their presence in the bay dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale.

The iconic 2003 New Zealand film The Whale Rider, staring 'Academy Award Best Actress' nominated Keisha Castle-Hughes was based on the Maori myth and filmed here in the bay. Unfortunately due to the influx of tourists after 'The Whale Rider' became famous, access to the village now requires the permission of the local iwi.

Luckily we were able to turn the rig around near the entrance to the village and stop on our way back out, near the top of the road into the bay and still see the carving on the Marae roof and also the church (see first photo) which I can add to my Country Church collection.

Just as we were about to pull away we spotted another fifth-wheeler heading towards us. What are the odds of that? Not one vehicle had passed us on the road, I bet the locals did a double take when they spotted these guys after seeing us half an hour earlier. 

They stopped to say hello (as you do when you come across another 5th-wheeler), they were looking for a beach to have lunch at. We told them about the turnaround further down the road and that there wasn't any access to the beach and left them to it as we pulled out and headed back to the main road.

The next destination was going to be our camp for the night, we'd been warned that the 6km road into Waihau Bay/Loisels Beach was narrow, winding and had very few places to pass any oncoming traffic (and in fact it was just a vehicle width only for the last 3kms or so).

With a little bit of trepidation we carefully drove round the blind corners, along a cliff edge with a massive drop-off, down through the tiny seaside settlement to the end of the road. Luckily we didn't meet another vehicle because one of us would certainly have had fun backing up.

And in case you're wondering, there are two Waihau Bays around the East Coast; this one is just above Gisborne and the other more well know bay is on the other side, just below Cape Runaway, in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Loisels Beach is just 42km from Gisborne but with very few campers on the road at this time of the year (late March) it felt like we were hundreds of miles from civilization arriving at a beautiful deserted beach. 

Although there were still half a dozen shuttered up caravans parked up after the summer break (which must have been a good one going by the flag pole!). 

With the Easter holiday break due in a couple of weeks I'm guessing camp regulars (who must have a special deal, as it's a 3 night maximum stay) have left their caravans here to use over the long weekend.

David backed 'Out There' onto a reasonably flat area near the entrance to the reserve so we could make the most of this fabulous view along the beach. 

and with this view out the back kitchen window, I was more than happy...

How to make your fifth-wheeler look huge- park it up on a rise higher than the ute.

Later in the afternoon while we were walking along the beach, we were overtaken by the only other person we saw on the beach while we were there. He was an American, staying in one of the holiday homes above the reserve. He told us he was having a fabulous time and couldn't get over how beautiful the bay was and how he had the beach to himself most of the time.

He was heading to the north end of the bay, we only walked a little of the way, climbing to the top of a hill overlooking the beach further along...

Waihau Bay- looking south...

...and north.

...before slowly wandering back to base along the incoming tide line; you can see the van parked up middle right, the holiday settlement behind the reserve and if you look carefully (click to open the photo up), the road into the bay cutting around the edge of the bluff on the left.

When we'd arrived we'd decided against driving to the other end of the reserve to check out the camping spots past the caravans because of the thick sand along the rough track. Which was probably just as well. Early the next morning, around 6am, I woke up to a whole lot of revving and garbled shouting. Other than one other couple in a late model caravan, we'd been the only ones in the reserve when I went for a wander before going to bed around 10pm the night before. 

When I looked out in the pre-dawn gloom, I could see two small sleeper vans stuck in a deep sandy pot-hole in the middle of the track, with about 4 or 5 dark shapes pushing and rocking the vehicles. After much effort (and noise), they managed to free one of the cars and then used it to tow the other car out. They all piled back in and roared off out of the reserve. I'd say it was pretty good karma. 

Now wide awake, I waited for the sunrise. Though this isn't just any sunrise, this is sunrise on the East Coast of New Zealand; pretty much the first place in the world to see the new day's sun. And it didn't disappoint.

It never fails to amaze me how often the sun rises on a reasonably clear sky and then the clouds roll in not long afterwards. These photos were taken 30 minutes apart.

Of course it also never fails to amaze me how often a certain someone wakes up, looks out, and says; 'What an awful day, where's the sun?'