Tapora & Big Sand Island

Continuing on with my Northland blogs from February, 2019

From Port Albert we headed further west to our next destination. Over hills and down dales, along dusty back country roads & weaving past tinder dry farmland through the Rodney District...

 ...until we finally reached our next camp site, Te Puni Campground at Tapora. Tapora is a small settlement at the top of the Okahukura Peninsula a large body of land that juts out into the Kaipara Harbour separating the north from the south branches of the harbour. The top of the peninsula sits right in the centre of the harbour entrance & acts as a natural barrier to incoming weather events.

The campground, which is right beside the Tapora Golf Club, is owned and run by a local farming couple who were excellent hosts. There are cabins available & a great amenities building with lovely sheltered deck for sitting on. We found a level spot on the undulating ground where the powered sites were located watched on by a curious herd of cows. 

We had come to Tapora to do some bird spotting on Big Sand Island (more on that later) and when our host heard this he was quick to point out that he often spooked Bittern/Matuku-Hurepo as he moved about the farm & the golf course. 

David checking to see where the flushed bittern was feeding

Bittern are extremely cryptic (camouflaged) and rarely seen. We have seen several on our travels, most of them have been flushed out of their cover by us being clumsy & not knowing they were about & we also had a couple fly across the road in front of the ute as we've travelled back roads. We've also seen one in freeze mode 'pointing' in a roadside ditch but it was gone by the time we re-traced out tracks. Now we were keen to see if we could finally find a bittern in a wetland up close. We thought we'd try the golf course first.

And sure enough we found one. And once again we were clumsy! We'd only just crept along the fence line down to the swamp when a bittern flew out without warning, right in front of us on the edge of the reeds where it must have been foraging. Bugger. Although luckily I had my camera ready to go but unluckily I didn't have it focused for a bird in flight.

The next day we crept to the top of the hill & lay on our bellies with binoculars scanning the wetland below but I thought we'd probably spooked yesterday's bird & it had gone deeper into the swamp or flown to one of the other wet areas on the course. I left David and moved onto a smaller area I'd seen the previous day.

And as I walked along the fence looking for a place to climb over I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted a bird 'pointing' in the thick reeds. 

I stopped in my tracks and crouched down carefully photographing the bittern as I willed David to come over the hill. It wasn't until I processed the photos that I could see that the bird's eyes were totally fixed on me. Bitterns freeze like this to blend into their surroundings although this one was a little easier to spot against the surrounding green reeds. 

Check the eyes- click on the photo to enlarge

As I cautiously approached it flattened it's chest to the ground and turned it head slightly still keeping one beady eye on me. I stopped and backed off a little hoping to keep it there until David came looking for me.

But then just as I turned my head to check for David it grabbed it's chance to escape. And of course I didn't have my camera ready so once again I have another blurry photo to add to several others. 

And again, it wasn't until I processed the photos, that I spotted that the bird had a really weird leg & foot. It looks like it's missing a foot in the photo above but when you check the photo below, the foot is folded back up the bird's back. Perhaps that's why it sat tight for quite some time. David finally made it over the hill but all I had were photos to show him.

And again the next day we had another look in both areas but didn't manage to flush anymore bitterns. It's back to the drawing board.  

We walked around the course checking out a few other wet areas but the bitterns had moved on. After seeing large areas of new avocado orchards further up north we thought this planting beside the golf course was another avocado orchard but once up close I could see that this was in fact a pomegranate orchard. The wind breaks are a tall plant with flowing leaves a bit like bamboo (but it's not) I've seen this plant growing in my sister's garden in Whangarei.

Just up the road from our Tapora camp was the entrance to Big Sand Island/Manukapua & the Manukapua Wildlife Refuge where we were hoping to see some wading birds. 

The island is in fact joined to the peninsula by a large expanse of sand which looks to only be covered in sea water at extremely high or spring tides. The island itself is a series of large sand dunes sparsely covered in dune grasses & scrub, it's front the first barrier at the entrance to the harbour. 

We made it across a sandy track & into the dunes before our progress is stopped by deep soft sand. The last thing we wanted was to get bogged down in the dunes without another soul in sight. I carried on, on foot, following the track over the last few dunes until I reached the spectacular view out the harbour entrance; Pouto Point is on the right, the north side accessed from Dargaville and South Head on the left.

Once I was back at the ute we drove around to the south side of the island across massive expanses of solid sand. David did a bit of bird spotting but with the tide well out it was pretty hard to see any waders.

Our host also sent us up another access track across his farm to the north side of the harbour just east of Big Sand Island, to the Okahukura Conservation area. 

This section was prime real estate for many of our less well known & rarely seen birds such as Marsh Crakes, Spotted Crakes, Banded Rail & Fernbirds along with Bitterns. 

We hadn't planned our visit to Tapora too well, the tide didn't suit here either and we also did our walks during the heat of the day. I think a dedicated bird spotting trip would need to planned to have any luck, and it would be best early morning. Still it was a great day for a walk.

I had to zoom in on this 'dinosaur' and take a photo to identify it, it certainly looked like a boat hull from our location, hundreds of metres away. And there are all the waders in front of it. 

We had one more place to check out, the aptly named Birds Beach on another point of the peninsula but we'd lost a bit of our enthusiasm in the intense summer heat so instead we parked on the foreshore and had lunch sitting on the tailgate in as much shade as we could find while watching holidaying locals carry buckets of cockles back from the mud flats. 

I can't quite decide if this would be a cool address to have or not.....

With our bird spotting adventures over I did a little exploring back up the road to the top of the hills behind Tapora. This is looking back towards the Kaipara Harbour entrance with the two points on the horizon.

I had also planned to add another church to my photo collection, the very picturesque Minniesdale Chapel which is not far off the main road but not suitable for a 14metre rig to drive down to, so I had to shoot it before we left the area. 

The tiny & cute Minniesdale Chapel has been open since 1867 & in continuous use ever since.

Many of the early Albertland settlers are buried in the old cemetery beside the church. One of the headstones looks to be wooden with a huge crack through it & the base rotting away. I've not come across a wooden headstone before so I hope it doesn't disappear altogether. No wait there was one, Somebody's Darling headstone at the Lonely Graves but it was inside a protective case. And I wonder what a headstone is called when it's wood? A headwood? I don't think so. 

I also drove into the Atiu Creek Regional Park, one of the many fabulous parks located around the outer Auckland area and run by the Auckland Council. 

The park is a working farm but also includes many walking tracks, mountain bike & horse trails and a couple of camp sites although the top carpark is the only one for RVs. Unfortunately I didn't have time to explore any of the tracks but it's a place I'd like to return to one day.

I was sad to find dozens of dead stick insects on the concrete path beside the toilet block. I suspect that the building had recently been sprayed for spiders & these were unfortunate victims too. I collected them all up and buried them under a pile of leaves.

Back on the road and on our way further south it was a surprise to round a corner in the highway & see a famous sculpture off in the distance. A quick snap through the window was all I managed...

Little did I know this was not the last I would see of the Gibbs Sculpture Farm...

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.