29May Wenderholm to Mousetrap:
Got up this morning not really sure where we wanted to go except north. We fooled around in Warkworth for awhile, I bought some yarn :) and we got great takeaway fish and chips which the seagulls desperately wanted. It was even wrapped in newspaper! And we found some free wifi...
Then we drove north to Pahia on the Bay of Islands and stayed at a fabulous hostel called the Mousetrap. A really cosy place with a nautical theme. Oh and on the way we stopped to see the public bathroom designed by Hundertwasser in Kawakawa. He lived there and apparently designed this place for the town. It's wonderful and typical Hundertwasser style – see the pics for more.
30May Mousetrap to Kerikeri:
Today we fooled around in Pahia trying to decide if we wanted to stay on a WWOOF farm in the area or not. Then we took the ferry across the bay to the historic town of Russell. Apparently it used to be a wild port town popular with whalers and such roughnecks, but now it is quaint, historical and very sleepy. In fact everything closed up at about 2:30pm and we missed going to any shops! Oh well. The ferry ride was fun and the town was cute. Oh and there was a restaurant there called Birdie Num-Nums :) No sign of Peter Sellers though!
Then we drove around the bay to Kerikeri and spent the night in another holiday park right on a river with lots of ducks. Quite nice.
31May Kerikeri to Matauri Bay:
After a quick visit to the Kerikeri library (I was looking for knitting patterns) we headed north of town for a scenic walk. Oh, and I had to buy a lamb and kumara pie from the "famous" Kerikeri pie shop – it was excellent :)
The walk we went on was short but gave us fantastic views of the Bay of Islands. Really the best way to see the area would be to go on one of the many cruises, but we're saving our money for the Great Barrier Island.
After this we wound our way up the coastline until we happened upon Matauri Bay – and it was so beautiful we had to stay for the next two nights :)
When we arrived the tide was high and we spent a couple lazy hours beachcombing and enjoying the views. We found out that low-tide was predicted for ~11pm that night, so we went for another walk then and the tide had receded an enormous amount! (We hadn't realized how shallow the beach was.) I always like walking on beaches at night, but this beach was particularly beautiful because the expanse of wet sand reflected the stars.
01Jun Matauri Bay:
Started off the day by watching the sunrise (through the window of the van) from our primo campsite right on the beach. It really warmed up today and we went out for another walk on the beach and immediately found clams – everywhere! There were a few locals digging them as well, so we figured why not, and dug up about 50. We could have easily collected ten times that many – the beach was just covered. Anywhere you stood, as your feet sunk into the sand you would feel them under the surface.
We got pretty wet digging them up – I was wet up to my shoulders from the waves, so I say we went "swimming", but Justin says that since I didn't get my head wet it doesn't qualify. Anyways... according to me we went swimming in NZ for the first time :)
So we steamed the clams for lunch and made a tasty garlic butter sauce for dipping and they were great :) You can see a picture of our carnage on flickr.
Let's see, we spent the rest of the day lazying around on the beach... quite enjoyable. Oh and we hiked up the headland to watch the sunset and to see the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior monument which is sunk off the coast here for diving.
02Jun Matauri Bay to Matai Bay
We spent the morning saying goodbye to beautiful Matauri Bay and around lunchtime headed up the coast. We stopped at another fantastic beach at Tauranga Bay for lunch and another beach walk (I could get used to this!)
Next we drove around Whangaroa Harbour, and past Doubtless Bay and up to the very end of the Karikari Penninsula to a DOC campground at Matai Bay. This was another postcard-perfect beach and even though we arrived at dusk, we had to go for a walk :)
It was high-tide and the beach was a very rounded cove, so when a big straight wave came in, it would hit the beach like a sucession of slaps as it collided with the curve. This wave action had created humps and ridges at the shoreline that just accentuated the phenomenon. Anyways my description does not do it justice – it was fascinating. I did video tape it, but we'll see if I ever have enough bandwidth to post the video.
03Jun Matai Bay to Waitiki Landing (jumping off point for Cape Reinga Walkway)
Spent a good half of the day exploring Matai Bay which turned out to be two twin coves – both absolutely beautiful with crystal clear water and nice fine sand. Similar to Matauri Bay at low tide the water line went way out and I got some beautiful photos. Lots of shells here too of course. The seashells here make me wonder why I ever picked up a shell in California... oh well.
Then off for our Cape Reinga trip, and the next post...
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