A Quick Trip- Eastern Bay of Plenty

Catch-up

One of our 'rules' while living on the road is to not de-camp during a long holiday weekend. In fact if anything we err on the side of caution, arriving 2-3 days before the weekend so we have a good site and are settled in before the masses arrive. And there we stay put and if we do move on after the weekend we wait a couple of days before pulling out.

We broke our rule Easter weekend. We won't do that again in a hurry.

After four days camped at Moreporks Nest in Te Araroa, Easter Saturday and with a hint of itchy feet, we thought we might as well head over the top and down into the Eastern Bay of Plenty for the rest of the long weekend. We were the only ones left and it didn't look like we'd have any company for the rest of the weekend. I had a few camps in mind that were on the beach or at least had sea views and, well, we hadn't seen too many people on the road. All our camping sites so far had been either empty or near empty so it shouldn't be too hard to find a spot for the next few nights, should it? Famous last words.

Our first stop was for lunch at a very busy Waihau Bay where the tiny settlement was buzzing with holiday makers enjoying the fantastic weather.

I've had a soft spot for Waihau Bay ever since watching the film 'Boy', the general store (below, second down on the right) featured in the movie; it's where Boy tries to impress the girls with his Michael Jackson moves.

We were lucky enough to find one empty boat trailer park that we could back into and have a quick lunch before anyone turned up to claim it. Boats were arriving home from a fishing competition and there were a few worried looks and cross words when MPI (Fisheries Officers) met them at the top of  the ramp. 

Our next stop is just a few kilometers south at one of the most photographed churches in New Zealand. 

The historic Raukokore Anglican Church is over 100 years old and was built in 1894. It sits on a promontory of land surrounded by a rocky shore and exposed to the prevailing salt laden westerlies. 

I also have a soft spot for this church; it's the subject of the very first photo I sold 6-7 years ago. I photographed the church on our road trip around the East Coast back in 2011 and I sold it to a guy who saw it in the photo sharing website Flickr. He wanted a canvas of the church for his wall, he had fond memories of the church from his surfing days in the area. 

Only in NZ; I wonder where else in the world you might find a similar sign inside a church! 

Back on the road we were starting to get a little worried about finding a place to stay for the night. It had already been noted that the Waihau Bay Holiday Park and the small camping reserve next to the Waihau Bay Hotel were both full to overflowing.

I had the Maraehako Camp- which is about half way between Waihau and Te Kaha- marked down as a first option. Photos I'd seen suggested the camp was more relaxed camping site right on the beach with large stand of pohutukawa trees and a stream running through it. Unfortunately the 'No Vacancy, Camp Full' sign was out as we slowed to turn into the gateway. We carried on down the coast.

Campers were spilling out over the confines of the freedom camping reserve at Te Kaha. Although we did see a couple of  narrow areas we could have carefully slotted ourselves into but frankly, we didn't feel like crashing someone else's happy holiday scene.  A little further on the Te Kaha Holiday Park was also a hive of activity. 

There was one more freedom camping area at Omaio to check before a run of holiday parks on the lead into Opotiki, there were also a couple of NZMCA CAPS, but based on what we'd seen so far they were likely to be full too. 

We weren't too happy with the narrow road and gravel track up into the freedom camping area at Hoani Waititi Reserve in Omaio but at least there was plenty of space available. The ground was very undulating and the grass knee high and very thick so it took several attempts to find a level site. Three Traillight motorhomes came in not long after us, they also finding it hard to find a level spot so we all ended up parked haphazardly in the middle of the reserve.

Other campers lined the cliff edge overlooking the sea, I say overlooking but they couldn't see a thing because of the mass of trees also lining the cliff. There are several steep tracks down to the water and rocks below which could be accessed at low tide. The water view in the photo below was taken from the Omaio Cemetery which is in the corner of the reserve. It did us for the night, and we were grateful to find something in the end, but I wouldn't  be racing back to stay there again.

Bringing our East Coast wanderings to an abrupt end, we headed through to the NZMCA Park in Opotiki the next morning.  Brilliant weather, the long Easter holiday weekend and hundreds of holidaymakers had foiled our attempt to explore the Eastern Bay of Plenty coastline. We'll return and explore that section at a more leisurely pace sometime in the future. 

And while the Opotiki Park is another great asset for the Association and a good park for members, after the last few weeks of remote camp sites and seeing very few people, we suddenly felt hemmed in by a 'concrete jungle'.

We took a Sunday (Easter Sunday) drive along the coast and around the Ohiwa Harbour where there were many more people enjoying the sunshine; here at the Te Ahiaua Reserve the freedom camping area was overflowing again and there were many day trippers picnicking, swimming and gathering cockles.

We drove out onto Ohiwa Beach near the estuary outlet where the familiar sight of Moutohora Island, more commonly known as Whale Island, greeted us across the water...

...and still more people were out enjoying their leisure activities and gathering shellfish. It really was a cracker of a weekend and for many, their last chance to relax and catch the summer sun before winter arrives. 

The next morning we headed off again, I just couldn't do another day at the Opotiki Park and being the last day of the holiday weekend, I was sure that we'd be able to find a spot at the Matata DOC Camp as campers pulled out and headed for home.

And sure enough the camp had a number of sites available, the manager saying it had been wall to wall campers all weekend with not one site spare. Many of them were leaving or still in the process of leaving as we arrived. We found a good spot along the edge of the wetland that's behind the camp and parked so we could bird watch out the lounge window. 

One of the many magnificent beaches that stretch for miles along the Bay of Plenty coastline is just over the sand dunes alongside the camp. That's Whale Island again, it's now to the east of us. 

Surf casting is a popular and productive pastime right along this coast.

I hadn't been able to get many sunrises since we left Waipiro Bay over on the East Coast, we'd either been parked behind large hills or in trees so I was up early to check the position of the sun here at Matata. My luck was in, it rose at the far end of the beach so I was able to include the sea and Whale Island in the shot.

I wasn't the only one up and about on the beach so early, a quad bike roared along the beach ahead of me, the red tail light causing me a few photo issues until he turned it off. I thought it was a fisherman until I zoomed in to see he had a kayak on the back...

...which he dragged into the waves before paddling off out into the bay. All was forgiven, it was a good photo-bomb afterall.

Once the fiery colours drained from the sky I headed back to the van, catching the pink hue of a new day...

...and a full moon still high in the sky.

We'd booked into Matata for one night but ended up staying three which proved to be a good antidote after our initial disappointment at having to finishing our East Coast exploring early. And it was a good place to gather our wits; next port of call- Mt Maunganui & school holidays! 

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?'