Matauri Bay- Northland

Catch-up

Once again I have struggled to keep up with my blogs, we've just had the most amazing summer up north and have only just returned to familiar territory (Mt Maunganui) where I don't feel the need to get 'Out There' every spare moment and shoot anything that moves (or not as the case may be). I shall now try and post regularly and catch-up a little before the next adventure begins.

And a side note; I couldn't not mention that this blog post is number 800. Yes, you read right, 800 blogs! My first one 'How it all began'  was dated August 2012, six and half years ago. And what adventures we've been on since then. Of course I probably could have doubled that number because my blogs aren't like other blogs; meant to be short & concise. Most of them are short stories! I've also recently passed 900,000 clicks (views), roll on one million!

We said a fond farewell to Kerikeri and headed north (little knowing we would be returning for an unplanned and lengthy stay in the not too distant future).

It was just 30kms to our next stop at the Matuari Bay Holiday Park where we parked beachfront, right on the edge of  the beautiful sheltered sandy beach of Matuari Bay...

...but not before having to do a 20 point turn with the rig on the back after Mr TomTom led us astray. 

He very rarely gets it wrong, or if he does I usually pick it up well in advance, but not this day. Mr TomTom decided to take us via the local whanau camp at the southern end of the bay. It didn't help that we had to continue on to find a wider area in the track to turn around after spotting the sign . I'm sure I saw several smirks on the faces of a group of locals sitting in the nearby shade. 

It was still early summer and other than a handful of full-timers in their last weeks of  wintering over at the camp, the holiday park was virtually deserted. Just us...

....a couple of hundred ever present, eagle eyed gulls...

'What do you think Charlie, you think they'll have food?'

...and several dozen rabbits who made themselves at home underneath and around our van; this one taking time out beside our power pole and letting me walk around outside without bounding off at the slightest movement.

I suspect that in fact we were intruding into their home territory, several baby rabbits lived under the caravan-come-cabin we were parked beside. It was fun to watch them out the tinted lounge window chasing each other, jumping and high kicking before racing back under the caravan as fast as they could when they spotted any movement.

A Rustic Kiwi Cabin

A few tourists arrived each evening to stay the night. These ones seemed to be so enamoured with their surroundings, they sat outside their van long after nightfall, wrapped up against chilly night air, reading their e-readers while soaking up the inky blackness and the stunning night sky. They were still there at 11pm when I stepped outside to check the rig over before going to bed.

At the north end of the camp and on the otherside of a small headland is tiny rocky Putataua Bay, an ideal place to snorkel, fish or launch a small boat or kayak from.

A walking track to the top of the headland leaves the camp beside Putataua Bay, it's a short sharp walk to the top but rest stops can be taken at the gaps in the pohutukawa trees that line the track. The views over the camp, the beach and out over Matauri Bay are magnificent.

The views from the top are also just as spectacular overlooking the Cavalli Passage & Cavalli Islands. In another life we spent a night anchored in Horseshoe Bay- the bigger bay to the right- while we were en-route to Whangaroa Harbour. The island doesn't look so big from up here.

The most important feature and the reason most people walk the track though, is to see the clifftop memorial to the Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior. The Rainbow Warrior, after being bombed by the French while it was moored at Marsden Wharf in Auckland (1985)- and with the loss of one life- was sunk beside the Cavalli Islands and now provides an artificial reef for divers.

A nearby boulder sculpture has engravings of the islands and a brass inlay indicating the resting place of the Rainbow Warrior (which is at the north end of the islands)

Just in front of the memorial, the cliffs drop away to the ocean below, there's only a small shin high wooden railing so do be careful if you have children with you.

Here's a pano of Matauri Bay, the campground and Putataua Bay.

I walked up the track several times during our stay, it also seemed to be a track that many of the locals walked for exercise; I captured this group of friends walking back along the beach one evening.

With the Cavalli Islands just 3kms offshore, Matauri Bay provides an excellent launching point for fishing and diving boats to be launched including local diving companies who take divers out to the Rainbow Warrior wreck.

I walked along the beach several times during our stay, capturing more 'friends'; a group of Black-backed gulls...

....the silky smooth sand and some amazing cloud formations.

At the south end of the bay, nestled below Matauri Hill on a rise overlooking the beach, is the historic Samuel Marsden Memorial Church (1896) named in honour of the missionary's arrival in the bay.

After Marsden's arrival on December 20th, 1814, he travelled down to Rangihoua and preached his first sermon on Christmas Day, 1814. You'll recall we visited Rangihoua Heritage Park & the Marsden Cross Walkway in the last blog.

Of course being on the east coast the sunrises were spectacular and always different, and being early summer, not too early at around 6am.

The sunsets weren't half bad either; the top 3 shown below are sunrises, the bottom 3 are the coral coloured hues of sunset.

Before long it was time to head off again, back on the road slowly making our way to the top of the North Island. Not far past the turnoff to Matauri Bay there's a lookout that gives a great view of the bay and islands.

Next up- Mahinepua and Tauranga Bay

History & Heritage- Bay of Islands; Part 1

Catch-up

Kerikeri- 'It's So Nice They Named it Twice!'

With so much to see and do around the Bay of Islands, the NZMCA Park at Rainbow Falls
in Kerikeri made an ideal base to explore from.  The park is located just a few kilometres from the Kerikeri Basin Reserve where a number of historic buildings including the iconic Stone Store, New Zealand's oldest stone building (1832) are. A Mission Station was established here in 1819 and it is one of the first places in New Zealand where Maori invited visitors to live among them.

The last time I visited the Stone Store the road ran past the front of the store and over the Kerikeri River, that's been removed and now a rocky weir cuts across the river where the bridge used to be. The Heritage Bypass (I like that name) now connects the town that a river divides.

You can still access the Reserve from the south side via road or the north side from a carpark and over a lovely wide pedestrian bridge...

...which delivers you to right outside the Honey House Cafe, the perfect place to have a bite to eat or buy a large icecream on a hot summer's day! Once the administration building for Historic Places Trust, the 1970s building was turned into a cafe and transformed in keeping with it's historic neighbour, Kemp House.

Now this is New Zealand's oldest building. Kemp House was completed in 1821-22 by missionary carpenters and Maoris sawyers for Charlotte & James Kemp and their family of 8 children. Charlotte was a teacher and their home was also used for schooling and residential care, including the daughters of Maori leaders.

Just yesterday, as part of the Waitangi Day celebrations, the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visited Kemp House to be shown two writing slates with the very first example of written Te reo Maori etched on them. The slates were discovered in 2000 under a lean-to at Kemp House and are included in UNESCO's Memory of the World heritage documentary register. One of the slates was used by Rongo Hongi, daughter of the renowned Ngapuhi chief Hongi Hika, it is inscribed with lines and signed 'Na Rongo Hongi, a(ged) 16".

Kemp House's heritage garden and orchard is of course NZ's oldest European garden. 

It was lovely to be able to wander amongst the gardens smelling the heritage roses and checking out what vegetables and herbs were being grown; the cafe has a ready supply of produce to choose from.

The Stone Store (1832) was once the base of the missionaries trading post, selling produce to passing ships and European goods to Maori. Stone was used to protect the wheat from rats, for defence against Maori and to reduce the risk of fire. The Store has also been used as a mission library, a magazine & barracks, a kauri gum trading operation and to house a boys' school, before eventually being bought by the Kemp family in 1874 when it became a grocery store. 

The Store, purchased by Heritage NZ from the Kemp Family in 1975, is now an up-market craft and gift shop (click photo to enlarge). Purchased tours can be taken of upstairs in the Stone Store and through Kemp House.

Across the other side of the road from the Stone Store is an old Blacksmiths shop (oldest in NZ of course) and another 'oldest' specimen; a pear tree!

And overlooking all the 'oldest buildings' lining the Basin is the historic (but new based on all it's neighbours) St James Anglican Church built in 1878.

The church is located in a very quite spot, away from the tourist traffic and with peaceful gardens and seats to rest awhile.

Later on during our stay at the Rainbow Falls Park I walked the 4kms River Track which passes right alongside the park and finishes in the Basin.

Sunset- Rainbow Falls

It's a lovely walk alongside the river although in places the edges are rather overgrown with weed and pest plants amongst the native bush. About 2kms upstream from the old river crossing at the Basin, the track passes underneath the Heritage Bypass. I also pass by the remains of a historic power house along the way and then stop to take photos of the woven flax flowers someone has made on a living flax bush.

There is another waterfall, Wharepuke  on the River Walk and some deep green pools known as the Fairy Pools along the way.

The track eventually exits out onto a large grassy expanse dotted with huge shade trees in the Basin Reserve, an ideal place to have picnic. One of the locals didn't seem too concerned with my presence...

... unlike the few dozen handsome roosters who also inhabit the reserve and hang out around the carpark looking for handouts. They really have their wits about them, taking off at a mere sideways glance. I'm sure people will have tried to grab them many times as they are so easily spooked. 

It's one thing we noticed throughout the the Bay of Islands area, every reserve or rest area  has dozens of chickens, mainly roosters but sometimes hens & chicks too. Either the council have a 'no catch & destroy' policy or there are many more than the usual backyard chicken farmers who abandon their rooster chicks in the district.

I crossed the bridge and walked around the river edge, past Kemp House again and along the track up to the Koripiro Pa lookout over the Basin...

...and the Maori pa site where I also had to fight off a couple of dozen school kids who wanted to read every word out loud and then draw their pictures of what they'd learnt while leaning on the information panels! 

That finally sorted, I had to head off another lot on my way back past the Stone Store (lucky I took my photos inside on the previous visit)...

But I did stop to take a photo of these two characters, Te Araroa Trail walkers (the trail passes by the Stone Store), I think they're having a good time, not a quick time over the trail. We saw them again a few days later, they were passing through Waitangi, a mere 22km (on foot) from the Basin. 

To be continued... Part 2

Poolburn Paradise

Real-time

Surprise! We have internet albeit very slow to download and very painful to upload, it took me at over two hours to upload the photos for this blog post. But, who am I to complain, at least we have contact with the outside world, thanks once again to Netspeed. 

I can't altogether blame the slow internet for the lack of blog posts though, it's been that and the fact that we've been rather busy doing not much after arriving at Poolburn seven days ago. 

We left the racecourse at Omakau Sunday morning and headed off to Poolburn Dam 35kms away. This is our 4th visit to Poolburn but the first with the 5th-wheeler on the back. We were both looking forward to spending a bit of time at the dam, doing some fishing, some photographing and exploring along the Old Dunstan Road (track); joining a few more dots on the Rough Ridge plateau. 

It's 15kms of  dry clay road, with an unforgiving bedrock base, to Poolburn Dam from Moa Creek. It doesn't sound like much but it's tough going, it's a slow haul out of the Ida Valley and up into the unusual moonscape-like scenery of Rough Ridge, with it's rocky tors and dry tussock grasslands.

This time the dust was diabolical after a dry summer, and the corrugations terrible and poor David swore and cursed as we inched our way upwards and onwards.

If it had been any further he'd have turned around I'm sure, although once past the halfway mark....well, there's no point is there? I know, it doesn't look that bad does it? But believe me it's probably the worst road we've travelled with the 5th-wheeler on the back. I just thank God it was dry.

All was forgotten once we reached the dam and we'd found a good spot beside the water, where we could launch the inflatable easily enough. There are plenty of areas to park although not all are level and not all close to the water. 

We've had a steady stream of neighbours across the bay from us at the unofficial boat ramp...

...and a few crib owners about, but never more than half a dozen vehicles pass by each day.

I got very excited about sunset our first night, thinking that'll I'll see plenty of them over the week but in fact that one was probably the best of them all.

Every day bar two (today being the 2nd one) has been a stunner, perfect blue skies, warm sun but hardly any clouds to reflect the brilliant colours of a setting sun.

And sunrise the following morning has been the only decent one too.

And we've had our first frost of season, it was -2c outside and 4c inside. The diesel heater was given a good workout.

And of course a great day usually follows a frost, which makes the cold all worthwhile. David has been out fishing most days although he's sad (reluctant?) to report that the fish have headed to the depths and refused to be tempted by any number of lures or types of fishing.

Everyone else reports the same...

Although we did managed to catch some koura in the net for dinner...

While David's been fishing, I've had an awesome time exploring the rocky tors for skinks (I was hoping to find the very rare Giant &/or Otago Skinks- no luck yet). This one is still a good find though, a native McCanns skink...

I also found a number of rabbits, or to be more precise they found me. Scaring the bejesus out of me as they lept out of shady holes close by, high up in the rocky outcrops, they'd race like demented idiots down the rock faces doing death defying leaps and zig-zagging off into the sunset or 'hiding' behind rocks further down the slope.

I walked to the dam wall, exploring the tors along the way...

...chatting to these motorhomers...

...before heading up to the fenceline behind where the views from the top are magnificent. I even spotted David fishing on the far side of the dam (click photo to enlarge- you won't see David though, he's too small!)...

There's a crib hiding in amongst the rocks at the top, it's a long way from the water.  I have a feeling it might have been used when the LOTR was filmed here. Poolburn Dam was the setting for the Plains of Rohan. That link is of my blog when we visited Poolburn during winter and found the lake frozen (some awesome photos if I must say so myself!)...

The reason I came up the back way to the crib was because of a flock of merino sheep that were resting below the crib. I crept over the top and onto a rock to look down on them. They are so skittish, they usually take off as soon as they catch a sight of you. 

A couple spotted me straight away, but the game was up when David called me up on the walkie-talkie right at the crucial moment. His voice boomed out into the stillness from my backpack! Game over and they headed for the hills (or rocks as the case maybe). It wouldn't have been so bad if he was calling to report a catch, but no he was just checking in.

The greatest excitement of them all though, was a sighting of two New Zealand Falcons/Karearea; an adult and it's fledgling. They flew through our camp at head height, the juvenile chasing its parent and calling patently for some attention. The next day I saw the juvenile fly onto the rocks behind us. 

I grabbed my camera, pulled on my gumboots, scaled the fence and spent the next hour or so in the company of one amazing bird. He wasn't in the least bit fazed with my presence, he flew in low over my head, swooping from one rock to the next, changing direction and following me when I disappeared out of sight, diving down into the tussock, catching and eating lizards, perching on a rocky point scanning the countryside for many minutes while I stood below him. It was an amazing encounter and a great privilege to experience. 

 There certainly is gold at the end of the Poolburn's rainbow.