Tinopai To Port Albert, Northland

Continuing on with my Northland blogs from February, 2019. 

From Dargaville we headed south to our next destination, Tinopai, a small settlement at the bottom of the Hukatere Peninsula, a reasonably large finger of land that juts out into the mighty Kaipara Harbour.

The Tinopai Camp Ground is right one the edge of the harbour with fabulous views out over the water.

It was the perfect spot to spend a few days relaxing in the middle of a hot summer.

Powered sites are available at the top end of the camp beside the water too & near the facilities, which, like many classic kiwi campgrounds are pretty basic but adequate. 

Of course the harbour is tidal and the view doesn't look quiet so inviting when the tide is out. Except when I captured it late in the evening, the sky with a rosy hue, as the sun dipped below the horizon behind us.

My sister & husband- who we'd seen several times while travelling around Northland- drove across from Whangarei to spend the night in their tent beside us before we headed further south & back to the South Island. 

There's a small marina beside the campground with the usual collection of small boats & old launches; some well loved, others that had seen better days. I didn't have to go far to capture the stunning sunrises either, just to the back of the rig.

I wanted to take a sunrise photo of the Tinopai wharf which is about 2kms further down the road, I drove down to check it out...

And then picked the wrong morning to shoot it. Although I still captured the golden glow, I would have loved it had there been the cloud cover & colours of the sunrise up above in the mosaic. After an evening of great company, good food & fine wine I was a little slow in getting out the door in time to make it down to the wharf for that one. 

We stopped several times on our way down to Tinopai so I could add to my collection of country church photos. And this church was high on my list. 

The Parirau Zion Church is tucked down a lane off the main road. Since these photos were taken there is now a Parirau Church Restoration Committee who are fundraising to restore the church to it's former glory. The Zion Church was the the first permanent Anglican Church to be erected in the Parirau settlement in 1889. It replaced an earlier nikau (native palm) building and became the place of worship for the local Ratana congregation in the 1920s. 

Other churches (and a friendly mule) I captured during our journey down to Tinopai and around to Port Albert are below. Clockwise from top left are; the 1866-67 Matakohe Pioneer Church across the road from the Kauri Museum, St Michael on the Hill (1845) at Hukatere,  All Saints Church (1883) at Mititai, the Paparoa Community Church. And the final one is the Coates Memorial Church at Matakohe, opened in 1950 and the only church in NZ to be dedicated to a NZ politician; Joseph Gordon Coates (1878-1943) was a member of the House of Representatives for 32 years & Prime Minister from 1925-1928.

On our way to our next overnight camp at Port Albert we stopped at The Kauri Museum in Matakohe. 

We enjoyed our visit & had a good look through the many rooms & displays but felt we didn't quite do the visit justice. There were just so many rooms and nooks & crannies to explore with a lot of written information to take in too. It was another very hot summer's day and we were keen to get back on the road and to our next destination in the comfort of our air conditioned ute. This would be a great place to explore on a cold or wet day.

Our next stop was a freedom camping site at the end of the road at Port Albert, another settlement on the edge of the Kaipara Harbour but this time on the south side. We ignored our GPS which kept telling us to turn around and head further south & turn off the main highway at Wellsford. Instead we turned off at Te Hana and wove our way through some dodgy back country roads to Port Albert. 

The freedom camping area is right beside the harbour with another long wharf jutting out into the water.

But no marina this time just a handful of lovely old yachts & fishing boats anchored out in the main channel.

One of the reasons for stopping here was so I didn't have to cook dinner! No seriously I had read great reviews for the fish 'n chip takeaways from the Port Albert General Store, just up the road from the campsite. I can happily report that they were indeed excellent fish 'n chips. I wandered up the road to get them and then we sat outside under the awning eating them in the warm evening air as the sun went down. 

As you can see it was indeed a very hot day, and especially so with no breeze to speak of.

Locals came down to the harbour to fish & swim as the sun sunk below the horizon and temperature dropped a little. 

The next morning dawned clear and still with just a hint of mist rising from the water. It was going to be another hot summer's day.

Browns & Invercargill

Catch-up

From the Matangi Station Rally in Little Valley near Alexandra, we headed south, out of Central and into Southland via Raes Junction for a change. We had an appointment the next day with a company in Browns, Harper Engineering, who specialize in building very flash horse floats. They also do RV work and repairs, especially RVs with slide-outs. We needed a little bit of maintenance done on our slide-out. 

Sunset- New River Estuary, Invercargill

I wonder how many know where Browns is, or even know that there is a place called Browns? It's a tiny wee village on SH96 between Mataura/Gore & Winton. We know it well because it's just eight kilometres from Winton where our Southland family live and we pass through it regularly if we are coming from the east to visit them. 

But this time our family are away in Christchurch, where they'd been since before Christmas and where we'd caught up with them over the holiday period. Not that we needed to stay with them this time because we had a much closer contact where we could stay. At the former Browns Hotel. Which is just across the road from Harpers. 

The old Browns Hotel has been purchased by a couple that many NZMCA members will know well. Fay & Murray Simpson were custodians of the NZMCA Weedons Park in Christchurch for many years. They have now shifted to Browns after purchasing the hotel which they are renovating and turning into their home and a POP (park over property). 

And what a great POP it will be too, there's a large area at the back to park and they are turning the old public bar into an comfortable area for campers to meet & enjoy Happy Hour. The bar is being left with many of the original features & furniture and will be a welcome retreat from the cooler climate of Southland. 

Murray & Fay have done a magic job of renovating and reconfiguring the inside of the old hotel and I'm sure, once they are open, this will be a very popular POP to stay at in Southland. Good luck guys and we look forward to checking back in when we're next down south. 

In true Southland summer style, the weather turned to custard the day after we arrived at Browns, and it didn't get much better for the next two weeks! With the job finished at Harpers & with the family still away, we decided to head into Invercargill and stay at the newly opened NZMCA Park on Bond Street.

It's a large park with hard stand & grassed areas out in the open and in under the trees. Once the plantings around the outside mature and the grass grows it'll be a welcome retreat for members. It's also very central with the city centre close by, Sandy Point Domain, the Bluff highway and Oreti Beach not too far away either. 

The park's  'piece de resistance' has to be the information & sign in shed. It's a flybridge from an old Sanfords fishing trawler surrounded by the shells of the locally harvested delicacy; the Bluff oyster. I think there's a bit of competition going on between some of the NZMCA Branches as to who can supply the whackiest or most unusual park shed, we've seen a few beauties on our travels.

The park also backs on to the New River Estuary. How spoilt are we with this view of the estuary and sunset over the back fence.

With appalling weather (gale force winds & rain) and not much else to do but sit it out, we, along with several dozen other members, spent the next week parked up waiting for a break in the weather. Although a few of our neighbours came & went, travellers on a tighter time schedule than those of us that have no plans from one day to the next. The only good thing the weather gave us were some amazing sunrises and some spectacular sunsets.

Just through the gate in the back fence is the historic Stead Street Wharf. The first jetty was built in 1860 to serve the newly established township. A replica of Lady Barkly, New Zealand's first steam powered locomotive & the Southern Light fishing cutter, both part of the old working wharf, are on display in the reserve.

Access to the Invercargill Estuary Walkway/Boardwalk & Cycle Track is from the Stead Street Wharf or further down Bond Street, both very convenient for members staying in the park. 

The bird life in and around the estuary is fantastic too. A flock of Royal Spoonbills were feeding in the tidal stream right below the wharf, herons, godwits & oystercatchers just a little further on. 

And if you're in the park when an aurora is forecast, you couldn't be in a better place to see and photograph the Southern Lights. The Stead Street road bridge is one of the top spots to shoot the aurora from and especially if the tide is in. The water provides the perfect reflection of the Aurora Australis which would be playing directly down the harbour on the horizon.

Of course you have to have a clear night & a forecast aurora to strike it lucky. All I got was heavy cloud with lots of opportunities to shoot the sunset. I'm not complaining but heck, I would have given my eye teeth....

The old wharf pilings made perfect foreground subjects to shoot the sunsets.

The family came home to Winton but we'd gotten used to our new parking space & they were coming and going, catching up on everything themselves after being away from home for over four weeks so we left them to it, visited for dinner a couple of times and also saw them when they came into the city on errands. 

This one looks like a lightening bolt but it's the edge of the cloud

The weather slowly came right, right in that it rained every second day instead of every day but it was still very cold with a brisk southerly wind blowing much of the time. I don't think we've had our diesel heater on so many times during January then we did this year. 

I recall answering a query on Facebook before Christmas from some North Island visitors regarding what to wear during summer in Southland. I answered, tongue in cheek but truthfully, "One January in Southland I wore summer clothes for 3 days only" 

Make that two Januaries now!

Bluebridge- Crossing Cook Strait

Real-time

I've had quite a number of queries in the last few days with regards to our Cook Strait crossing so I thought I'd do a blog on our recent trip with Bluebridge Ferries. We crossed from Wellington to Picton on the 8am sailing last Thursday, 19 March.

We're making our way south again for winter, this time we'll be basing ourselves in Twizel in the Mackenzie District. We stayed at a very busy Plimmerton NZMCA Park for two nights while waiting for our sailing. Plimmerton is a good base to leave from, it's a 26km, 30 minute drive along the motorway (non-rush hour) to the ferry terminal.

NZMCA Members parked in the centre overnight

The NZMCA park is large and there's plenty of space for all the comings and goings as people travel up and down the country. If the parking spaces are taken up around the perimeter, you can park in the centre as long as you keep the gate and dump station clear.

Sunrise over the capitol

Our check-in was at 7am and in usual Evan's style we departed well in advance at 5:45am giving us some 'just in case' time. The 'just in case' went against us this time. As we were cruising along the near empty motorway we received a text from Bluebridge advising us that there was a 2 hour delay in departure which we later found out was due to weather conditions affecting previous sailings.

Of course this isn't a problem for those of us that have our homes on our back. We can make a hot drink, read the daily news, have breakfast (or lunch or dinner) while we wait in line.  We weren't the first in line but once we'd checked in, and being a bigger rig than most, we were directed to park at the start of Lane 1. All the other early birds and new arrivals were directed to the other side of the terminal to wait in line (see photo above).

It didn't seem too long before our ferry arrived into Wellington and the unloading began. We turned our gas bottle off (as everyone should when crossing the Strait), re-checked everything was ship-shape inside the van and then waited patiently inside the Ranger for the nod to move forward.

After the walk-on passengers had been escorted on board and several cars, smaller campervans & caravans had been loaded ahead of us, it was time for us to drive on following the excellent directions given to us by several high-viz Bluebridge crew along the way. Once in the hold everyone was turned around in the large turning bay at front of the ship and lined up facing the rear, for an easy drive off at the other end. Large stock and freight trucks had already been parked on the top deck. 

We had booked our crossing 10 days prior to sailing and had decided to book a private cabin this time which turned out to be fortuitous considering this fast changing world we're currently living in. And we were so pleased we did, at $40 a double with an ensuite toilet & shower, fresh towels and linen and free wi-fi, the cabin provided a nice little bolthole to retire to for the three and half hour journey. There are also single and family cabins available.

And as luck would have it we were in the most forward cabin, right in the centre of the ship. For me this was an excellent bonus because as a fair weather sailor, I like to see where we're going not we're we've been or even not see at all! It's just a pity there weren't little window wipers that you could turn on to wash away the salt from the previous sailings. 

Right on time (the new sailing time that is) we pulled away from Wellington and headed across the harbour. 

I left David relaxing in the cabin and checked out the facilities downstairs. Due to the recent travel restrictions there weren't too many people onboard although I suspect going by the number of motorhomes & caravans we saw later around the top of the South Island there would be a few more onboard crossing the other way, from Picton to Wellington.

Bluebridge have two ferries, the Strait Feronia which we were travelling on and the Straitsman which we pass just before we leave Wellington Harbour.

Once we are in Cook Strait I retired to our cabin, we'd had an early start and I thought I'd make the most of it and have a rest until we reach the other side. It was a relatively smooth crossing although the wind was quite strong. 

If you are at all worried about rough weather check the long range forecasts and select a day when there's either no wind (rare given that Wellington is known as the windy city) or there's a Northerly blowing, this flattens out the waves. If you are a fair weather sailor like me, then it's the Southerlies you need to watch out for. An early morning sailing can also be relatively smooth as you'll be well inside the Sounds or harbour before the afternoon sea breeze kicks in.

I moved to the front viewing area to watch as we approached the entrance to Tory Channel; East Head on Arapawa Island is on the right & West Head on the left (click to enlarge the photo & look for the small white lighthouse) is part of mainland Marlborough Sounds.

A few passengers; each group keeping a respectable distance from others- it certainly feels like there's an elephant in the room here- arrive to watch as we enter the Channel too. Arapawa Homestead is directly in front of us and I hear someone say there must be a road out here. No there are no roads, those are farm tracks, it's an island and the only way there is by boat.

I follow the signs and stairways up to the top viewing deck where there are fabulous views in front and down both sides of the Channel. 

There's even fewer people up on the top deck, it's breezy but warm in the sun.

The top deck overlooks the stern of the boat and the upper vehicle deck where there are very few trucks parked on this sailing. We leave the Channel entrance in our wake...

 ...as we cruise past several salmon and mussel farms...

...and numerous secluded houses and holiday homes tucked into calm little bays & coves along the way.

...and then we turn into Queen Charlotte Sound and head south up the Sound...

...passing Waikawa first- a small settlement with a large marina- just over the hill from Picton. Passengers near me ask if that is Picton. 'No' I tell them, that's around that lower green headland centre left.

We sail around the point and directly ahead of us is Picton (as predicted). Crewmen move out onto the bow to ready the boat for docking.

Picton is a small picturesque seaside town tucked in below the surrounding hillsides and nestled on the edge of Queen Charlotte Sound. It's also the arrival point for many visitors to the beautiful South Island.

We head directly for Port Marlborough and the ferry terminal.

The Strait Feronia spins around and...

...we back in nicely along the wharf. The captain has obviously done this before. The call has been made to move to the vehicle decks and I have to quickly head down five flights of stairs...

...catching up with David on the last stairway before we make our way back to the rig.

And then without further ado, we're driving off, back onto familiar soil and our new home island. 

It's hard not to recommend Bluebridge, they run a slick operation with friendly and helpful staff and good systems in place which makes for a stress-free crossing. Thank you Bluebridge for another smooth sailing.

I know a few of my readers have asked about Bluebridge's pet policy. Pets are welcome on Bluebridge ferries, they can either be booked into one of the kennels or, as most travellers prefer, left in their vehicle. But please let Bluebridge know when you check in so that you can be given a 'Pets Onboard' mirror dangler. Please also read this information and the crew will park your vehicle in a well ventilated spot that is sheltered from the sun.

Bluebridge Key Facts-

• Pets are welcome on Bluebridge 
•  44 sailings a week
• Around 300,000 passengers cross the Cook Strait with Bluebridge every year.
• Ships have the capacity for around 400 passengers each (check this link for regular Covid-19 updates)
• Sail four times a day Wellington to Picton including a 2.30am overnight sailing- and three times a day from Picton to Wellington
• Free wi-fi, movies and kids packs on board