Magical Mahinepua Bay, Northland

Catch-up

Beautiful tiny Mahinepua Bay was our next stop, just a short 10kms north of Matauri Bay. Usually we would have driven quite a bit further to find our next camp but I have had this one marked in my 'must stay' folder for a very long time....and now some of you will also have it marked down as it's not actively advertised as available. 

Mahinepua is reached by taking a short gravel road off Wainui Road, the scenic coastal route off SH10 on the south side of the Whangaroa Harbour. At the centre of the bay is a public reserve with a sandy beach and clear shallow waters which are safe for swimming. 

Across the road from the reserve is a pretty flash holiday home which looks a little out-of-place in this sleepy backwater. The house is regularly rented out for weddings and other special occasions. At the north end of the bay there are several original baches including these two that have seen better days.

At the southern end of the beach on a narrow sandspit bordered by emerald green waters and with an urupa (Maori cemetery) at it's entrance, is another small reserve which is under the protection of the local kaitiaki (guardians). 

Camping is sometimes available here (CSC vehicles only- there is no water and just one long drop toilet available) but permission must be sought first from the caretaker (Wiki), a sign board at the entrance gate has the contact information and a koha (donation) is accepted as payment. 

For this you will be well rewarded with a fabulous site just a few steps from the sea on one side...

...and the calm waters of Waipareira Stream on the other.

At the end of the spit there's a picnic table & a couple of lovely deep swimming holes which were put to good use by locals at the end of the day and over the weekend. 

Other than a family in their tent, we had the camp to ourselves the first evening and then shared it with a couple of motorhomes over the next couple of nights. Wiki had warned us though that there were a large group of whanau coming in for the weekend (whanau- an extended family or community of related families). 

Fire in the sky! Of course a new camp wouldn't be complete without a sunset shot or two... 

Several boats came into anchor overnight in the calm waters of the bay.

After seeing vehicle lights and hearing excited people arriving long after dark, it was still a bit of a shock Saturday morning pulling up the kitchen blind to find the camp busy and cars parked behind us.

Friday calm... (click on the photos to enlarge) 

To Saturday chaos (happy chaos of course). Many of the families had driven up from Auckland Friday evening, a 300km trip.

One of the things we love about living on the road are the unexpected experiences that come our way, sometimes right out of left field. Then there are the lovely people we meet along the way too.  On this occasion we had a chance to combine both of them. One morning a guy in a ute pulled up alongside the van, we thought he was just having a look until David stuck his head outside. The conversation went something like this-

The Guy- "You look like good people, would you like to come for a coffee?"
David- "Ummm....that's nice of you, sure. When?"
The Guy- "I'll come and collect you tomorrow morning about 11am"
David- "Oh, Ok, see you then'
And off the guy drives.

Me when David steps back inside- "What? Who the heck is he and where the heck are we going for coffee? What do you mean you don't know!? Did you get his name? "
David- "Arrr.....no...."

So for the rest of the day (and some of the night) we puzzled over the encounter. Perhaps we should have something on tomorrow but we didn't have a contact number or name to call to say thanks, but no thanks. What if he had evil intent, if he whisked us away and we didn't return no one would know where we'd gone. Don't be silly we said, he has a kind face.

So the next morning right on the dot our man turned up in a ATV to collect us. We climbed in beside him and he roared off down the track, through the gate and back up the road a couple of hundred metres, us holding on for dear life as he cut the corner off by taking a stock track around a bend. And then we turned off the road, passed through another gate and wound our way around the edge of a swamp and then up a very steep driveway.

And that was how we found ourselves having morning tea with fellow RVers Bernard & Marion, overlooking this amazing seascape from the clifftops above East Bay.

Bernard & Marion once lived in their bus (quite awhile ago), they have been house sitting and maintaining this beautiful property for over 3 years. 

Bernard loves the job and the isolation (he gets his people fix by picking up strays at the local campground) but I get the feeling that Marion has a serious case of itchy feet and is keen to get back on the road, sooner rather than later.

As it turns out the couple's son & daughter-in-law have a fifth-wheeler and had been staying at Matauri Bay when we were there, David spoke to the son briefly on one occasion when he was hauling in his kayak. We never found out whether that was where the connection came from but Bernard did know I was a photographer so somebody had been talking. We had a lovely time and Bernard deposited us safely back to the van afterwards. No need to call in the search party.

I loved these Cape Cod chairs, they made the perfect subject (and now one of my favourite photos)

Another campground we had on our radar was a little further up the road so we went for a tiki-tour in the ute to check it out. Tauranga Bay Holiday Park is a very popular place with the motorhoming community, many winter over here each year and others, including David's sister & her husband holiday here year after year. 

 A section of the camp is long and narrow and many of the sites sit on the edge of the sand dunes overlooking the ocean beach. Surfcasting is a popular pastime.

Although I think this guy had other ideas on what to do with his time...

There's a large public reserve and wide estuary for swimming & kayaking on, at the opposite end of the camp.

The last time we passed Tauranga Bay was in our launch, we were heading to Whangaroa Harbour;  the entrance is just up the coast from the beach, between the two headlands centre right. In the end we both decided that we didn't need to come and stay now that we had visited, David wouldn't be able to launch the dinghy from the beach and it was too far to travel to get it down to the estuary. 

On our way home we stopped at a high point in the road. The 270 degree views were spectacular, here I have zoomed in on Mahinepua Bay, where you can see the aqua blue of the shallower and calmer water.

Further around to the south are the Cavalli Islands, and the finger of land that protects Matauri Bay.

I knew that we wouldn't tow the 5th-wheeler into Whangaroa on a tiki-tour when we left Mahinepua (very tight dead end road) so later in our stay I did a round trip to check in on the tiny settlement. Just for old times sake. Whangaroa was where we came for supplies when we were staying further down the harbour on the boat. Back then it was the height of summer and a very different place to the deserted village I explored on a dismal and overcast day.

This is one of reasons we wouldn't have made it to the end of the road; a very low hanging pohutukawa just past the hotel & marina.

On the way home I was also able to stop and shoot an old shack I'd seen near the road when we'd passed by earlier in the week. I wonder at the stories this little building could tell.

Back at Mahinepua I watched one of the local Oystercatcher pair have a good bath in the shallows near the van. They had a nest nearby and it looked like this one had just been relived of nest sitting duties...

...he (or she) sure was pleased to have a wash down, jumping, flapping and dancing about in the breakers.

And one final photo from just after sunset, the pink hue that appears over the sky in the opposite direction, it pays to look behind sometimes!

And if you'd like to know the contact number for Wiki, please send me a message; either here on the contact form or via a PM on Facebook and I'll send you the number..... and an invoice for $100 (just kidding!) Be aware though, that depending on when you intend to visit, Wiki may no longer be the caretaker.

Coming up next... Take a walk with me

Westport’s Wonderful Weather

Well, it was for four of the five days we stayed, the other day it was torrential rain which we were very grateful for; our vehicles needed a good wash down, they still had a salt covering from the storm that blew through when we were at Ward Beach three weeks ago. And with no water available at the NZMCA Park it was great to be able to put our collection containers out at the end of the awning and fill the water tank and our spare carry containers. This saved David at least one trip into town to fill them at the Countdown potable water tap (which is near the dump station which we couldn’t use as it was tucked into a corner).

Here’s a few more photos from our time in Westport-

In amongst the dunes beside the NZMCA Park is a freedom camping area that had at least 6-10 vehicles parked up every night; mostly hire motorhomes & sleeper vans. There’s not too many places in New Zealand where you’d be able to park overnight right on the beach like this, some visitors from overseas might think they’ve died and gone to heaven when they pull up on such a beautiful beach.

Westport’s  NZMCA North Beach Park from the beach. The tepee, I think, is courtesy of the Kiwi Experience Bus passengers; they come here for a sunset bonfire & drinks.

I took these photos especially for our friend Bluey, to show him what a good dog does when a pesky weka comes a calling. This little pooch must have a whole heap of willpower, either that or she’s too scared to move. Bluey, she is a looker, you could be in with a chance if you ever meet & can show her some restraint. When it comes to weka.

At the south end of the beach is the Buller River breakwater and the Westport Bar, a wild section of water that has claimed many lives and boats over the years. I missed getting a photo of a fishing trawler exiting the mouth as we arrived, there was a large swell and huge waves were rolling in. The boat rode over the top of them, crashing down the other side with sea spray flying in all directions. It made me feel sea-sick just looking at it. Later a very small and cute older fishing boat came up the channel, I was hoping to see it cross over so I could get some photos but it spent about half an hour going round and round in circles fishing for live bait and by the time we left it was still weaving about and the swell had subsided.

We’ve now been to the source of the Buller on Lake Rotoiti at the Nelson Lakes and to the mouth of the Buller here in Westport.

Before the tide turned and the waves settled there were a large number of surfers riding the waves on the north side of the breakwater. There was a lot of white water but a few good sized waves too. I even managed to catch a fish enjoying a wave (top right-it looks like a kahawai).

This little house was just down the road from the Park, it looks to have been part of the racecourse at some stage. A little harsh perhaps, but it’s aptly named ‘The Box’. Cute!

We visited Cape Foulwind, just south of Westport, where there’s a 2km coastal walkway between the lighthouse at the Cape and Tauranga Bay further south, where there’s a seal colony. Nearby are the Gibsons Beach sea stacks, there used to be a huge single stack further out called Giant’s Tooth but it crashed into the sea after an earthquake early last century.

We didn’t walk the track, there was a cool breeze blowing, it was getting late & we didn’t fancy retracing our steps to get back to the car afterwards. Instead we drove to the other end, to the carpark at Tauranga Bay and walked up to the seal colony.

It’s just a short walk to the lookout over the colony where a steady stream of visitors were hoping to catch sight of the seals. The last time I visited here, many years ago, there were hundreds of seals spread out over the rocks below but unfortunately today there were only a handful of pups playing in a pool while their mothers are away feeding at sea.

And if you didn’t have binoculars (like most of the visitors), or a camera with a good zoom, you would have been hard pressed to see them. This colony has nothing like the huge numbers of seals that are in the Kaikoura coast colonies.

We drove around Tauranga Bay and over to Nine Mile Beach which is a beautiful long isolated sandy beach backed by large dunes covered in marram grass. Today there was just the solitary figures of a horse & sulky rider working out before the rain arrived.

There was one last chore to do before we headed north towards Karamea. With only two public dump stations in Westport and both of them in the parking area of a supermarket we had to use New World who had the best access. Although they had no potable water so then it was across to Countdown for that.

Who in their right mind would team up a dump station with a supermarket? Not only is it a weird combination but also there's the tight maneuvering for bigger rigs inside the car park- especially on a Saturday morning.  I guess the supermarket came up with the idea, hoping we’d buy our groceries there while we dumped (and we did). In one door, out the other!