Summer hols started with Si heading up to Whangerei on Fri night with Gem and Charlie as I had to stay in Hamilton till Sat morning as I was on call back for transports. Thought I had managed an easy night until the phone woke me at 4.30 saying that I needed to go and fetch someone from Rotorua for urgent angio for a heart attack. If it wasn't 4.30 it would have been the perfect retrieval, very stable patient and going straight to Cardiology so no paperwork for me to do on the return. I did however get to see sunrise over Rotorua in the helicopter which was pretty cool. And still managed to get in in time to get a lift up to Whangerei with Katie at 8am.
3.5 hours later we arrive at Whangerei and headed to straight to the beach to meet Gem, Si and Charlie and enjoy some surf. Unfortunately when I arrived Gem had realised she had accidentally damaged my board - surf was a little too big and strong - if just waves and sand had done that to the board Im glad she came away unscathed! We were joined later by 4 other friends from Hamilton who also were booked into the same campsite for the night and we had a lovely evening of BBQing and drinks. Sunday we headed out for a short walk and some more surfing - Oh, and Gem stood up for the first time - Yey!
After saying goodbye to the gang we headed east across the Northland peninsular to the Waipoua forest which is the home of the largest native trees in the country - the Kauri. After arriving at our campsite at 6pm we soon realised that we had passed the only place we could get food 30k back - so we backtracked beofre putting our tent up in the rain!
Monday we headed into the Kauri forest and saw the four sisters Te Matua Ngahere (father of the forest) the 2nd tallest kauri however with the biggest girth (16.41m) and Tane Mahutu (lord of the forest) the tallest kauri (17.7m) We then headed on our drive up to Ahipara - the base of the 90 mile beach.
On our drive up we passed through Hokianga, had a lovely lunch in a cafe on the water's edge - amazing views out over the sand dunes and arrived at Ahipara around 3pm. Had every intension of hitting the surf over there until we discovered that there was non..booo. Spent the afternoon sat on the beach chilling as the weather had cleared up nicely for us.
Tues we spent the day doing a big trip up to Cape Reinga, where Maori's believe is the departing place for all Maori souls heading back to the homeland and where the pacific ocean meets the tasman sea. To get there you head up along the 90 mile beach - quite cool as you can drive along it - need a 4x4 though so we went with an arranged tour. Got to sand board the enormous dunes - more like sand tobogganing. was good fun but we were hoping you go a little faster than we did (the kiddies whizz down!)
Wednesday we headed east to the Kerikeri peninsula again in search of a little surf, unfortunately found none but did manage to fit in a bit of snorkeling and found a vineyard with tastings - the most northern vineyard in NZ - also had a golfcourse and a really posh restaurant attached so we booked a meal there for the evening - a little bit nicer than the alternative which was a BBQ at the campsite. Weather was pretty rubbish the whole time we were there windy and rainy but had cleared up a bit by the next day.
Thursday we succeeded in finding surf at a little place called Taupo bay on the east coast - started out in waves far too big but found a nicer spot the other end of the beach which was nice and manageable. Spent about 3 hours there before we decided to head on to our last place before the weekend. That was on a lovely beach recommended by friends - Matauri bay - a surf beach apparently, although yet again - no surf. Was a lovely spot for the evening though and enjoyed a nice walk up to a view point and a great BBQ and enjoyed some beers with the sunset (oh and Si got to fly his kite)
Friday we chilled out on the beach for the morning then headed to the bay of islands to meet Gem and James for the weekend. That night we went out for a meal to a restaurant that sells itself as a fish restaurant , although after sitting down and ordering our wine we were informed that they had run out of fish.......not impressed! Saturday we went to Kawakawa - which is the home of the oldest stone and wooden building in NZ (thought James would enjoy it, what with building being his job....but apparently with it being built in 1840 he wasn't that impressed!) but a nice place to sped the day - went to a recreated maori village and headed back via a vineyard to board the rock, a purpose built backpacker boat. and bar.
The Rock is probably the best value for money experience in NZ - They pick you up at 5pm, they then head out of the bay of islands to a nice secluded spot- on the way they attach a rubber duck to the back of the boat and hand out air rifles - free drink to the best shot - disappointed it wasnt James with his shooting skills! We were a little pissed by that point - after having started our drinking on the beach earlier with a bottle of wine bought at the vineyard. We then anchored the boat and started fishing for our dinner. I caught the 1st fish (a tiddler) and earned myself a free drink - unfortunately no fish we caught were big enough to eat, although Si will boast that not only did he catch 6 but there was also one that was so big it snapped his fishing line! That evening after our dinner of steak and salads we were put into groups for kayaking. The kayaking was incredible. The water was full of phosphorescence which sparkled like diamonds when disturbed - so so cool, we decided to ditch the kayaks and dive in amongst it - the water seemed so warm, we couldn't work out if that was because it genuinely was warm or we had really good beer jackets on. The next day we got up to a good breakfast and started the day with a snorkel trip - the most fish i've seen in 1 trip, visibility was amazing and we went out catching lots of kinna (sea urchins) to eat later. (which, although is meant to be a delicacy is really quite gross)
Rocked up back onto the dead fish beach (named after Si's shenanigans on the same beach at Chrsitmas) where we had a lovely lunch and kayak. After lunch we headed back to Paihia for our return back to Hamilton and reality.
Really good hol and unfortunately the last for a long while!
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