Whangarei

We departed Crystal Springs bright and early on Wed, Feb 22 as we had a long day of driving ahead of us. Kim had departed even earlier as she was driving to Auckland to pick up the arriving students so we didn't have to say goodbye yet again. Our destination was a small city called Whangarei about 350 km north. The most northerly city in New Zealand, it's main claim to fame is a deep and sheltered harbour and thus is a popular spot for world wandering sailors needing shelter from the summer storms of the south Pacific. Whangarei is also part of the Northland, that section of the north island beyond Auckland and running up the very northernmost tip, Cape Reinga,a sacred Mauri site that Julie and I managed to blaspheme (we were there on the 26th so there are a few more blog entries before you will hear about this). The Northland, being a little more remote is a little quieter as well and as soon as we made it through Auckland the traffic died down and the road took on a more twisty and turny dimension reminiscent of many of the south island roads.

The beaches rimming the Hauraki Gulf are 30 minutes from downtown Auckland

While our maps app told us the trip should take about 4.5 hours what with a stop for lunch at a kite surfing beach and other short roadside stops we did not arrive until late afternoon. There was a nice walk from our campsite into the town basin where we stopped to admire some of the yachts, enjoy a coffee and then do some provisioning. That night we enjoyed BBQ lamb and a fine Marlborough Pinot Noir. Happily content, or contentedly happy we drifted off to sleep. Our plan was to spend two nights in Whangarei and it was a nice feeling to know that we would not to be up early to pack up & be ready for another long drive. While my back had been making great progress perhaps the day in the car had been a bit of a set back as I awoke on the morning of the 23rd feeling pretty stiff and sore. Now our friend Brenda had given me some stretching exercises to do which seemed to be helping me and she also suggested I consider seeing a physiotherapist and so after a bit of research made an appointment for the following morning. With this done, we set off for a forest tramp to a beautiful waterfall.

Me at Whangarei Falls

The path took us by a stand of old Kauri trees which have been largely depleted as these straight-trunked trees were great for boat building and housing. More on these giants later. No sooner had we returned to our car from our forest tramp then the skies opened up and we experienced our first serious rainfall. It reminded me of some of the rain storms we've experienced in Mexico with torrents of rain falling in sheets.

A Kauri tree along the walk to the falls

 You would be soaked to the skin in seconds and even with wipers on frenetic visibility was lousy. Fortunately we spotted a pub and we decided it would be safer there, quaffing an ale or two than it would braving the elements. We had our trusty iPad with us and so spent a pleasant couple of hours playing scrabble and watching the tide come up. Once the rain subsided we continued along the sea-side hugging road that led out to Whangarei Head, passing through several very picturesque little villages.

Cheers!

While we were planning to do another beach walk, no sooner had we arrived than the skies opened up again and knowing that there were still many beach walks in the cards for us we opted to turn around and poddle along more of these lovely rural roads. On this topic I must say that our iPad has been absolutely wonderful. Using the maps app it is so easy to pick a route for the long way home without fear of getting lost. One can zoom in close enough to see whether or not a particular road is seal (ie paved) or gravel and also whether you will be climbing up the side of a mountain or perhaps having to ford a river. We did learn, however, not to ignore roadside warnings, such as 'not a through road' even when it is clearly evident on the iPad that it should be clear sailing.