A Return to Port Jackson- Coromandel

Catch-up

After 2 weeks at Simpsons Beach in Whitianga it was time to head north to our next destination and another one of our favourite camps in the Coromandel. Port Jackson is right at the top of the peninsula; a beautiful crescent shaped bay with a sandy beach overlooking the Colville Channel. Channel Island sits off Cape Colville at the eatern end of the bay and Little Barrier and Great Barrier Islands are on the horizon. The Port Jackson DOC camp stretches along the length of the bay with camping sites just a few steps up from the beach. 

Rather than travel all the way to Port Jackson in one day and have to drive the difficult last section of the road late in the afternoon we stopped at White Star Station for the night. The farm station is just a few kilometres south of Colville and it's where we stayed for a few days on our last visit. Back then we thoroughly enjoyed exploring the farm tracks and gold mines that are located up on the range above the farm. 

We were a little concerned that White Star weren't taking campers any more as their listing was missing from the NZMCA Directory (there are very few camping options at the top of the peninsula) but no, they are still happily in business. A son & his family now live in the farmhouse and are usually out on the farm for most of the day but people are welcome to drive in and park up in the paddock (if its not too wet) or along the back hedge and catch up with them later in the day. We backed into the feijoa hedge where there are a couple of power points available for a small charge. It was a good chance for us to recharge the batteries after being off the grid for a couple of weeks. 

The view from the feijoa hedge

We headed off the next morning, a little apprehensive and keenly aware that we were about to travel THAT road.  

It wasn't long before we came up behind a sleeper van dawdling along the road enjoying the scenery. As they pulled over to let us pass I spotted a flat tyre. I leaned out the window and asked if they knew they had a flattie. 'A flattie' they said 'what's that?' 'A flat tyre!' I said. 'Flat tyre? Oh no! I didn't know' she said from the drivers seat. 'I don't even know if we have a spare, we only bought the car 2 days ago' he said. 

Half an hour later we had them sorted (and they did have a spare though that was half flat too). That's David being David in photo #3, using the air hose as a mike... 'Now for the camera could you tell us how you're enjoying NZ so far and what do you think of the Coromandel?'

The road from Colville to Port Jackson is only 26kms long and while the first 15 or so kms are your standard narrow, gravel, slightly winding road, it's the last 10kms that are to be treated with caution. When Mr TomTom tells you it'll take 2.5 hours to travel 26kms you know you need to heed his words of advice. In fact this time it only took us around 90 minutes with the 5th-wheeler on the back (last time about 2hrs) and just 40 minutes when we travelled the road by ute one day.

I think I've already mentioned that we spent 6 weeks in the Coromandel on a previous trip, not long after we started with this lifestyle. In fact it was more of a shake-down trip when we threw ourselves into the deep end, travelling to and staying at sites that were often not recommended because of our size.

Huge Pohutukawa trees tower over road from both sides

It has actually stood us in good stead because we quickly learnt what our limitations were and have consequently travelled far and wide to many places others fear to travel. Even now, when we mention Port Jackson we often get horrified looks or mutterings of  'no way', 'not on that road'. And just in case you have missed them, all links I have included in the paragraphs above are of blogs on the road & Port Jackson from our previous visit.

Hmm...is that puddle a precursor of things to come?

The road is narrow, it has numerous blind corners, a number of shallow fords and once you start to climb, steep drop offs down to the rocky shoreline below; the key is to take your time and approach every corner cautiously, watching in the distance (if you can see) for approaching vehicles- little swirls of dust in the summer or light beams at night are good indicators.

Other than that it's a stunning road to drive with fabulous views out over the Hauraki Gulf. Unfortunately the sun was right in my face so I only have shiny shots to show you; here you can just see the road cutting through the cliff sides about a third of the way up.

This is the magnificent view out my window as we leave the rocky coastline behind and take the long slow haul up and over the tip of the range...

...stopping at the top for a quick 'must have' photo looking down over Port Jackson below. It's been a long time between visits but we feel like we're coming home.

We stop to check in at the DOC office and say a surprise hello to Ursula one of the camp managers who along with her partner Frederick have managed the camp for a few years now. They actually weren't in residence on our last visit to Port Jackson but we met them at Lake Rotoiti (Nelson Lakes) last year when they came to say hello. They've followed my blog and belong to a number of the same motor-homing Facebook pages that I do. Frederick arrived at our door later on to say hello and welcome us with some fresh snapper fillets! 

There are only a handful of campers in camp and we have the pick of the sites; we had a look at our last site which was in the middle of the camp but decided to head right to the end where we would be closer to the boat ramp and where we were sited right on the beach with fabulous views right around the bay. Sadly the sun disappeared and a big dark wave of cloud settled above us for the remainder of the day. 

By sunset the 'wave' was heading over the Hauraki Gulf towards Auckland.

The following day David got the Takacat ready for fishing....

...and there it sat for the next 2 weeks. The weather closed in for a number of days and then when the sun came out the wind blew and blew, on an ocean that was not very nice for a tiny boat to be bobbing about on.

We weren't too worried about the down time, we caught up on lots of computer work and enjoyed the rest and relaxation. And David became slightly obsessed with the mice he was catching in a couple of traps he had set up near our site- we lost count after 3 days, 15 mice in total! Others were caught and disappeared; we think stoats may have been carting them away in the night.

The last time we were at Port Jackson we also caught a few mice, a couple even drowned after they slid down the van tyre and into a bucket of water- I had felt sorry for them as they must have been swimming around and around all night. I hadn't known that they'd actually been inside the van, it was only after I found a half eaten marshmallow Easter egg a few weeks later, which I'd hidden at the back of the pantry, that I realised they'd been inside having a feast! They'd even eaten half the coloured foil!

From the dinning table, as I worked away at the computer, I watched the many boats and ships passing through the Colville Channel, including the the tall ship; the Spirit of Adventure on a particularly blustery day with it's sails reefed.

A couple of days later I spotted it again, heading in the opposite direction, this time with most of it's sails up.

Every night the sunsets were magnificent and perfectly positioned right in the middle of the bay...

...and these rocks, exposed at low tide, made for some great foreground interest.

One evening a fishing boat photobombed (in a good way) my shot as it motored through the channel.

 And on another evening a yacht came into the bay to anchor, making a great silhouette for my sunset shots.

As the sun moved towards the horizon, I captured it sitting atop the mast like a big golden ball of energy...

...before it slid down the pole...

...and out of sight.

It never fails to amaze me how slow the sun moves when you're all set up and waiting on the beach (in the cold air) for it to set and yet other times you just happen to glance out the window and see it racing for the horizon, only just managing to catch it before it disappears! 

A couple of times while I was dancing around on one foot trying to keep warm- having shot out of the van without my jacket and not going back for it in case I missed the million dollar photo (I wish)- I heard a little peep-peep near me as the resident pair of NZ Dotterels raced past. 

Finally the day arrived when the water was calm enough for David to go fishing (which was just as well as a severe case of cabin fever was brewing).

And we enjoyed the fruits of his labour for the next few days. 

Peace had returned to our little world.

New Moon

Piano Flat Swingbridge Walk

Catch-up, I have a few posts to do before I continue on with Lake Onslow. This last one from Piano Flat and two or three left over from the Catlins and Winton earlier in the year. Hopefully I can get to do them over the next week while we take a break and spend a little of what's left of summer on the banks of a river in Central. I've had 4 swims in two days- that's 4 more than I've had in the last two years! I don't mind the +30c temperatures when I can cool down.

Back to Piano Flat- there was one more walk we wanted to do, a loop walk up one side of the Waikaia River to the Jack Egerton Swingbridge and back down the other. If you've been following my blogs for awhile you'll know that I 'collect' swingbridges, photos of course. They also provide a target, something to aim for on the longer walks. 

This was a 4 hour, 8km return walk according to the information and part of the walk was along the gravel road. We decided to drive to the walk exit point onto the road and then walk the 4km return section on the same side of the river. Which was just as well, as it was very tough going and took us 4 hours anyway.

We hadn't driven far up the road when we came across another digger, which we had to crawl behind until he moved a lot of debris off the road in front of him and found an area to move over...

...and once we got passed him we had to wait again while the tree trimmer machine finished sawing and moving his smaller branches off the road. You'll recall from our 4WD trip to the end of the road we had a chat with another digger driver clearing the road over the top of the range. You'll also remember that I mentioned the narrow bush tunnel formed over the road, well the chopper made short work of that. Talk about a road make-over! 

We pulled into a clearing beside a stream just in front of the machines, they had about 10kms of bush to trim ahead of them (and 12kms back down the other side). We headed off down the track beside Post Office Creek and after returning later in the day machines hadn't been back past.

It was a short distance down the track to the river, which looked absolutely stunning; quietly serene, with deep pools and large rocks...

...and in an unusual chartreuse green colour, highlighted even more where the sun shone..

Unfortunately the track was tough going, much of it had washouts into the river below...

...and debris laying across it (check the DOC orange arrow)...

... and tree slides over it. Most of it was from the recent (2 weeks before our visit) flash flood that swept down the valley. I don't even think we got to the halfway mark (1km) before we were questioning whether to go on or not. 1km doesn't sound like much but when you're constantly avoiding obstacles and watching where you step it can become very tiring. David was keen to turn around but the bridge spurred me on and we decided to carry on.

You can see flood debris caught in the bush beside David and above his head in the 2nd photo. This was a massive flood, the river bed isn't that narrow here and we're about 3 metres above the river.

As we move further up the river the number of fallen trees lining the edge grows.

The bird life was prolific and we had many visits from the local bush robins/toutouwai along the way. I'm guessing they hadn't seen anyone for awhile, they were all keen to check out any disturbed leaf litter or overturned log. 

From our vantage point high above the river and amongst the bush cover we saw several good sized trout...

...including this school doing circuits.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity but was actually only just under 2 hours, we caught sight of the swingbridge ahead of us and then as we got closer, below us. We had to slip and slide down to entrance level and be very careful not to slide even further over the edge of the rocks and into the river below. 

We found a safe ledge to sit on near the bridge and had a well earnt snack. I've been unable to find out who Jack Egerton is and why the bridge is named after him, so if anyone does know please leave a note in the comments (update- thanks to Geoff, we now know why, check the comments).

Of course after coming so far to see the bridge, I've then got to cross it. It doesn't look too bad here but it was actually quite intimidating, one of the scarier ones I've been on. 

It creaked and groaned and swung wildly- I kept having visions of all the trees passing under it during the storm and wondering if DOC had checked it out afterwards.

Holding on with one hand I still managed to take a few photos, this is looking downstream. David told me if he'd brought a rope he'd have climbed down into the river bed to give it some perspective. Yeah right.

 Looking upstream through the gorge, those are car sized boulders there.

And just to give it perspective, can you see David sitting on the ledge to the right? (click on the photo to enlarge) The water level during the flood was at least 8 metres high through here, there is debris caught in the trees where he's sitting.

Done and dusted, another swingbridge added to the bridge photo album. After a brief rest we headed off a little reluctantly, back down the track. We weren't looking forward to all that hard work again, traversing the track in reverse. It actually wasn't too bad as we pushed on without too many stops (although there were a couple of stumbles); we'd seen most of it on the way in. 

I even put my camera away in my pack which is unheard of, but not before taking this slightly out of focus photo of New Zealand's smallest bird (6-8cm), a female Rifleman/Titipounamu. They are often high up in the understory and flit fast between trees calling to their family as they go with a tiny high pitched peep-peep. They run fast, spiralling up and down the tree trunks, gripping small branches and twigs as they lean out to check for insects.

And I got my camera out again when we passed the pool with the large trout in it; he was in close and the water so clear.

Of course once we had completed the walk we were pretty pleased with ourselves that we'd done it. It was worth all the effort.

And now a few more photos because I won't be doing a blog on the extra day that we stayed at Piano Flat when we crossed the river from the campground and went birdwatching back up the track we'd walked a few days earlier. We had a few awesome finds.

Excitement! Fresh deer poo in the clearing across from where we parked.

I really wanted to sit up all night to catch them in spotlight but then I would have had to fight off these little buggers. Evans= 3, Mice =1. Although we think we caught the one that got away, he fell off the tyre and into the flexi bucket half full of water and drowned. They'd found my supply of wild bird seed!

Not far from the clearing and right in the middle of the track I found this dead New Zealand Long-tailed Bat/Pekapeka-tou-roa, possibly a dropped late night snack for a ruru/morepork (native owl) as one wing had a tear in it.This is our one and only native land mammal (although there are 3 species of bats), our other native mammals are all marine animals; dolphins, seals & whales. Bats are seldom seen and this was our very first sighting, albeit of a dead one.

Possibly on a par with the bat was a good sighting and a long view of not one, but two Shining Cuckoo/Pipiwharauroa fledglings, squawking and chasing their frazzled foster Grey Warblers/Riroriro parents around the bush. Shining cuckoos are usually heard but seldom seen, they are masters of camouflage. The adults fly in from the Pacific Island in early spring, find a warbler's nest to lay their eggs and then swan around until it's time to migrate back there in autumn.

Two fledglings are rare as it takes a lot of work to feed them, especially when they are twice the size of their parent (photo is a little out of focus, I so need a faster lens).