I’ve been meaning to pop in here for years but because we have several friends near here, it never seems to work out.
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We left Colins POP early in the morning in Mangawhai and cruised over the hill past Langs Beach and onto Waipu Cove. It really is a stunning little spot well served by a great Restaurant, a Dairy and a Fish and Chip shop.
Our neighbours at Waipu
We checked into the Waipu Cove campground with a very smiley Jemma on the front desk. You know its always going to go well when you get greeted like that 🙂 She was very helpful and pointed us to a parking spot right behind the sandhills by the beach.
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Looking up towards Ruakaka
Great showers and nice ablution blocks.
Lots of space with big parks.
After settling down Rafe, opening vents and plugging in and finding out where everything was, we checked out the beach and then, decided to walk down to the Cove Restaurant (same organisation as in Mangawhai and very good!)
Back towards the Cove
They gave us an amazing, shared platter with bits of everything starting with Oysters and Pork belly… just fantastic and as we couldn’t do full meals, just perfect along with a Gin and a Chardy 🙂
Fiona walking up the beach.
A well spent couple of hours here and we crossed the road and walked back to the campground along the beach and through the sandhills. Just a wonderful spot.
Waipu campground. oodles of room.
A few brave souls were in the water and although I did twitch for a swim, by the time I was ready to get in, the clouds rolled in, so it didn’t happen 🙂
Fantastic beach
After an afternoon of chatting with others and sitting on the beach, we walked just outside the campground gates to get Fish and Chips.
Looking back from the sandhill, you can see Rafe in the corner of the hedge.
Another Fantastic day, not doing a lot but great weather generally, nice people and a lovely spot.
Our spot at Waipu Cove.. you can see the sandhills behind.
We’ll be back here, it’s all just so easy and that beach!
Bowentown is just one of those places that just works and with its fantastic beach, it is hard to beat for somewhere to stay. Every time I walked down to the beach with the camera over the few days I had here, there was a completely different look.
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Looking down from the hill. Rafe parked at the bottom of the image.
I was parked overlooking the sea and the rest of the camp close to where I was when I was here a few years ago. A lovely spot and only a few steps to the sand.
That amazing beach
Anzac Bay is an easy walk from the Campground and is on the other side of the peninsular. There used to be overnight parking a few years ago but it was stopped due to congestion issues, but it is another nice bay with others beyond that you can walk to from there. If you have bikes, there is a great bike trail that takes you all the way up to the northern end Waihi Beach.
Anzac Bay
I spent some time with some other Motor homers who had stopped for lunch and were enjoying the sunshine.
Picnickers at Anzac Bay
Back to the camp… On the second day, there, I popped down to the new Froth Cafe for a coffee and a snack. They had a walking group from Waihi Beach so were run off their feet but both Shawna and Helon had the place humming. The walkers do this on a regular basis and stop for a reward at the Cafe.
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Lunch at Anzac Bay
Looking out towards Katikati at Anzac Bay
The Vw’s are still there
The kid’s area at Bowentown
The view from our park .. just the best.
Looking North, Rafe down the bottom.
The Boat ramp on the inner harbour at Bowentown
One of those moods on the beach
There used to be a lovely boardwalk that ran along the top of the sand dunes along the beach but unfortunately the last weather events undermined to the point that it was unsafe, and it has been removed.
It is still one of the best beaches around and just going down to sit in the lee of the hill at the bottom of the beach with the sand between your toes is just magic, even in winter 🙂
Matariki weekend started with big traffic queues, so we thought we’d wait until Sunday and catch the traffic going the other way. Keeping it close and keeping the fuel costs down, we thought we’d head towards the Kaiaua NZMCA park with the superb hospitality provided by both the Pub and the Fish and Chip shop.
We arrived at Kaiaua NZMCA park around the middle of the day on what was a grey day. There were already several 5th wheelers, Caravans and a few Motorhomes there but there was plenty of room.
As I got out of the Motorhome to register in the shed, I met Mia and Hans who were right next door to us in there new Benimar from Taupo. They were veteran Motor homers who have travelled extensively through Europe in a Motorhome. They spent a year travelling and some of their adventures sounded amazing.
Not long after this came Steve and Caroline in their 8m Delaware from Whitianga. Nice to meet them too.
The Marina
After checking out the river next to the park, we headed to the Pub next door for a pizza lunch. It was superb and very good value.
As we walked into the pub, we walked past a whole lot of vintage Morris’s out in the carpark. A lot of car and bike clubs come here for lunch in weekends and do a loop back up the coast. Lovely seeing the old cars.
The Morris club dropped in too!
We went for a walk around Kaiaua after that ending up at the pink shop up the road a bit.
The Pink ShopKaiaua Beach looking down towards Rays Rest
Later in the day, we headed over to the Pub where we met both Steve and Caroline. Hans and Mia were sitting at another table and came over and joined us and we heard about their amazing trip through Europe including Turkey. Fascinating!
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New arrivals
Fiona coming back from the pub
Next to the park
The Marina
The Pub
Ducks in the river around the park.
Hans and Mia joined us next door for a fabulous meal at the famous Fish and Chip shop right next to the pub.
The Fish and Chip shopThe NZMCA park from the bridge
It’s a great little village Kaiaua and the park is fantastic. Being this close to Auckland, it’s an easy escape for a few days which is exactly what we were looking for. It was a real bonus meeting some interesting people as well.
Some of you may remember the Auction for Hospice Taranaki set up by my old friend and boss Rob Tucker in September last year. Rob organised some of his old work colleagues and other close news photographers to each provide their 3 favourite images for the auction. They were framed and mounted and various businesses in New Plymouth banded together to donate their services to make it a huge success. The Auction raised over $200.000 for Hospice Taranaki and really helped them out financially.
The three images I contributed to the Auction taken during my time at the Auckland Star below. Click on the images to enlarge.
Tina Turner at a press conference under TV lights.
Micheal Winslow outside the Regent in Auckland.
Run for your wife. One of the last shows at His Majesties Theatre in Auckland before it got bulldozed. L to R: Geoffrey Hughes (Coronation Street), Timothy Lea (Confessions of a Windows Cleaner) and Windsor Davies (It aint half hot mum) were staying at the White Heron lodge in Parnell where I met them early one morning.
I used to work as a photographer at the Herald with Rob. I was his first appointment when Rob was appointed as one of the youngest Picture Editors the Herald ever had. He had worked in Taranaki, at the Auckland Star and in the UK. The Herald did a really good video of Rob’s career highlights which you can see here. Rob was also appointed a medal in the recent Kings Birthday Honours for services to Photography.
A couple of weeks ago, Rob sadly passed away after fighting cancer for the last few years. The day we knew would come arrived, but it never makes it any easier when you lose a good friend.
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On the drive down
So, I jumped into Rafe and set off for Fitzroy Holiday Park to attend the funeral which was in Rob’s hometown of New Plymouth. The weather wasn’t fantastic, but I still managed to get some nice moody images coming down the coast into New Plymouth.
Lovely Coast
I checked into Fitzroy Holiday Park and the next day at the funeral caught up with my old darkroom buddy and fellow Herald Photographer Ross Land. We both started within a year of each other as young 20 yr olds, both appointed by Rob so have known Rob for over 40 years. As Rob was confined to a wheelchair, Ross was Rob’s right-hand man at the Auction, helping with the mounting, putting the book together and helping get the Auction under way. Despite the loss of our good friend Rob, it’s always nice to see Ross.
At a get together at Rob’s place 6 or so years ago. LtoR, Rob, Rob’s brother Jim and me. Rob’s wife Bonnie took the photo.
I also caught up with a few other photographers and Journalists present including Robs brother Jim who was my boss at the Auckland Star for 5 years or so in the 80’s. It was also really nice to see Robs wife Bonnie and their family.
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Well used walkway
The Kiosk and surfclub.
Water isn’t far away.
Cabins
Fitzroy is one of those Holiday Parks you never get tired of. It’s in a great location right on the beach and the facilities are fantastic and its reasonably priced at this time of the year. It’s also handy to the city.
There is a walkway/bike lane that runs all the way up the coast and back into the city which is amazing. It runs through the front part of the camp and a really popular coffee Kiosk just outside. It’s a really popular place for the surfers and the walkers and bike users, both on the walkway and beach are nonstop.
After leaving Awanui, we were going to head to Ahipara. Fiona mentioned that she’d never been to Kaitaia so we were off to see Kaitaia which was on the way. We were going to stop for a coffee but couldn’t find any easy parking. After a visit to the Dump Station, we had a quick look around and decided to head on to Ahipara which is just short of 14k’s away.
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The road entrance to State highway 1 to Cape Reinga 🙂Looking back to Ahipara and the road around to the headland.
As we entered Ahipara there were two Cafe’s which were really busy… so we checked in at the Ahipara Holiday Park being the only place to stay.
Just in front of where we were parked.. huge parking area.
Although slightly on the expensive side, the parking spots were bigger and flatter than I’ve seen anywhere so that more than made up for it. The Loos and Showers were really good too and there was also free Wi-Fi if we’d wanted it. It was only 10 minutes’ walk away to the beach. You generally get what you pay for these days 🙂
Check out the room!
After setting up Rafe and opening vents, and plugging in, I took the camera for a walk down to the beach…. The bottom end of the 90 mile beach! I looked around for anything that looked anything like what I could remember from years ago with the beach buggy, but it all looks very different from what I remember… it was a long time ago though.
Looking north towards Cape Reinga!People enjoying the water.
I went back to the camp and Fiona, and I took Rafe to the Cafe we saw coming in and had a really nice lunch and then went for a drive down to the bottom end of the beach along the foreshore road.
A local friendly Goat
It’s amazing looking up the beach, you can see the bend of the land going right up to the cape. There were a few people having a swim and enjoying what is probably the end of Summer. A great spot.
After an hour or so we motored back to the Holiday Park and blobbed for a bit.
Later in the day.
The wind had died down a bit later on and the sun was shining so it was nice with the stereo on and with all this space, no neighbours 🙂
Rafe’s tracker map to the Ahipara Holiday Park – Armada GPS
This was just such a treat and Fiona and I had been looking forward to it.. the highlight of the trip if you like. We met the bus I was later told; was a 400 HP beast that was once a Petrol tanker but was custom made for its current purpose of ferrying people like us up to the Cape on the sand.
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The driver picked us up outside the Awanui NZMCA park along with a neighbour in the park with his two grandsons and we were off.
Jason the driver and guide was a scream and very good with the flow of interesting information that went all day.
After turning off the main road north at Waipapakauri, we headed a few k’s towards the beach before we got to the sand. The weather for the trip was perfect and once Jason had changed into 4-wheel drive, we were off up the beach… all 56k’s of it apparently 🙂 As Jason said on the commentary “ It’s the only state highway that gets a wash twice a day “:-)
Getting out for a stretch
About half an hour or so of cruising up the beach, we stopped and got out for stretch and a look around. It’s an amazing beach with nothing really in either direction apart from the sandhills behind.
Looking South. the hole in the rock.
There was a rock of the beach with a hole in like the one off Cape Brett.
Jason running the Bus up the Te Paki stream for the sandboarding.
A bit further on, we were heading up the Te Paki stream beside the massive sand hills where we stopped to let to let those younger and more adventurous than us to boogie board down the sand hills. Jason gave them all a few safety lessons and they were off.
Jason doing the safety briefing.Jason doing the safety briefing before they head up the dune.Sandboarding !
They all seemed pretty happy with the occasion and about 45 minutes or so later, we set off again up the stream to rejoin the highway up to the Cape.
After Lunch
Next we were heading up to Tapotupotu Beach for lunch which Jason had stashed away. The road wasn’t for the faint hearted in a big vehicle and although there were a few Motorhomes there, it definitely wasn’t for me.
Looking towards Maris van Diemen
About an 1 hour later with a great lunch by the beach, we all headed back to the bus and Jason then took us all up to the Cape Reinga carpark to walk down to the lighthouse.
The oceans meeting
It’s about a 45-minute walk down to the lighthouse and back and quite steep in places but on a really nice track. As you go down on the left you can see Cape Maria van Diemen where the lighthouse used to be, Cape Reinga in front and the beach that we had lunch at off to the right with North Cape way off in the distance.
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Arriving on the beach
A sandhill in the sun
Looking South.. wonderful.
Jason running the Bus up the Te Paki stream for the sandboarding.
Jason doing the safety briefing.
On the way up.. Jason was saying the escalators were being serviced 🙂
The Lighthouse – pic by Fiona
Cape Reinga
The last time I was here, I think I was 13 years old or thereabouts. We were on a family trip with a 4-wheel drive with a beach buggy on an A frame. It was a trip for a photo shoot with a friend of my Dads who was a specialist Motor Racing photographer for a magazine article. The beach buggy got stuck on top of a sandhill… think all wheels off the ground so I got to learn how to drive it while we got it unstuck 🙂
Back to the trip… it was fantastic to see it all again and all the improvements that have been made for easier access.
At the pub on the way home.
We were all back in the bus heading down the road for an ice cream stop and to the famous Waipapakauri where Fiona and I had a G & T to celebrate the end of a great day. We were only a few K’s north of the Awanui NZMCA park.
Back at Awanui.. great day !
A fantastic day and I’m really pleased we took the option of a guided bus trip. It wasn’t expensive given what was involved and a lot of fun and entertainment. Thanks, Jason, for the great commentary and a brilliant day out.
Rafe’s tracker map to the Awanui NZMCA park – Armada GPS
From our spot in Kaikohe, we rang ahead and booked a spot for a couple of nights at the Bay of Island campervan park which is nestled in between Olive trees on the main road into Paihia. Its a perfect spot for walking to Paihia and to the Treaty grounds, both only 15 minutes away and it is very reasonably priced too.
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Paihia Wharf
The first day we were there we walked about 15 minutes into Paihia to catch a ferry over to Russell. The ferries were flat out so there were three ferries shuttling people across but there was plenty of room and it’s only a 15-minute trip across.
Leaving Paihia
We had booked into the Duke of Marlborough for lunch but were a bit early so walked around the waterfront, ate ice creams and drank coffee and eventually went to the Duke for a G&T. The “Duke” as it’s known apparently is NZ’s oldest licensed pub. There are several others that claim this title but as Russell was NZ’s first capital and one of its first settlements, they’re probably right 🙂
Fiona ready for lunch 🙂My Snapper and ChipsThe Group across the road enjoying their lunch
Fiona and I came to a wedding here several years ago and they’re slick operators where the food and Beveridge’s are concerned. There was a table setup for a group of about 10 across the road at the top of the beach having their meal out on the edge of the water… lovely!
The Duke of Marlborough behind the trees.The Russell Ferry that was sunk after a collision with a boat a few days later. The boat in the background is a Classic called Wild Duck. It used to be a Flying boat tender in Mechanics Bay.
As the time crept on, we crossed to the road to the jetty and caught the ferry back to Paihia.
The ferry we caught back was being skippered by a lovely guy who also collected the tickets was the ferry that was sunk a few days later, by an alleged helmless 600hp go fast boat that hit the port side. He was badly injured and airlifted to Auckland in a critical condition. A terrible situation and from my past boating background, being hit on the port side means the ferry had right of way. Witnesses say there was no one at the helm. I hope after the investigation that the transgressor has the book thrown at them.
Leaving Russell
After getting back to the camp, I had a great chat to Jan who owns the camp and previously ran another bigger camp at Haruru Falls. It turns out that Jan is the big sister of an old Auckland Star colleague of mine who was a subeditor and used to lay out my photos on the fashion pages… Small world 🙂 She was ex media too but in Televison!
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The Shakers in action
The crew get stuck in.
Jan with the Olive oil
Rafe with the Olives
The Shower and Toilet block
The camp is a little pearler with very tidy loos and showers and some apartments, some of which go up the hill. The camp sites are separated by Olive trees which is nice and the next morning, we were entertained by the “Shakers” shaking out the Olives from the trees. The Oil is bottled along with the Olives and donated to charity.
The crew get stuck in.The Shakers in action
A great park in a lovely spot and so handy!
Rafe’s tracker map to the Bay of Islands Holiday Park – Armada GPS
A favourite free parking spot for many.. on the coast north of Miranda.
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Lovely spot
This was probably one of our first parking spots when we first bought our Motorhome 8 or so years ago. Its handy to Auckland, its free and its easy.
Easy parking
If you want shops, museums and pubs, you don’t go to Rays Rest. This where peace and quiet happens with the odd sound of a vehicle whizzing past at 80 odd K.
Flying Kites .. perfect spotRafe on the edge
It’s a lovely spot to sit on a deck chair on the edge of the sand outside your Motorhome and watch the clouds go by.
People enjoying the sun
Its been a while since we were here and it was redeveloped by a big storm since our last visit but it still looks much the same. Just as good as it was.
Looking across to Thames
Well recommended if you live in Auckland, are finding diesel expensive and can’t decide where to go for a night or two.
The next morning, we got fuel, filled up an LPG bottle which ran out and we were off up through the gorge towards Opotiki. I was quite looking forward to the drive as it is years since we’ve done this. It is actually quite a good road despite the potholes.
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Just over 2 hours later, we found ourselves coming into Opotiki where we stopped for something to eat and then onto Island View Holiday Park. It’s called that but due to the weather building up, you simply couldn’t see White Island at all through the murk.
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Volley Ball
Soaking it in
Great watching the waves
We’ve been to this park before just prior to one of the Covid lockdowns and being off season, it was $20 for two (Campsaver). There was no one else here!
Wild !
With it being top of the silly season, almost all of the Campgrounds in the Bay had cranked their prices to make the most of the demand and this park was no exception. We saw it as a treat for a couple of days. We’d done well over the previous week or so all good!
The Pool
The weather was closing in with wind and rain warnings and we were only just behind the sand dunes. A few went for a swim in the wild waters down by the surf club, but most went for the safer option in the camp pool.
The vibe was amazing with everyone having fun. There is a bike trail along behind the dunes but peters out both ways which confused a few people.
Spoilt for choice
The camp is well setup with multiple toilet and shower blocks, but it was just nice sitting down on the sand watching the waves crash and in a funny way, quite therapeutic 🙂
We stayed a couple of nights to hunker down for the worst of the weather that wasn’t as bad as predicted.
Nice people, a nice setup but now that I’m a pensioner, I might keep our next visit to off peak 🙂
On New Year’s Day we said goodbye to Steve and Rosemary. They were heading down towards Carterton.
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We were well overdue for a trip to Gisborne as it has been 7 years since our last visit!
We headed off via the coast up past Wairoa which seemed to go on forever. The forecast bad weather had arrived and was settling in.
We found a neat little Fish shop just by the turnoff to Mahia Peninsula which had the best Fish and Chips I’ve tasted for a long time then we headed off again up towards Gisborne.
The park
The new NZMCA park in Gisborne is a beauty right over the road from the beach. With the weather the way it was it was no real surprise to see a couple of cruise ships anchored off the coast.
Fiona checking out the cruise ships
The next day we spent the morning catching up with the Laundry, bedding and all. It was nice to have a everything clean again. After that we headed off to find a nice Cafe for some lunch and got some more groceries while we were right next to a 4 Square.
Waikanae BeachFiona on the beach
The new park is a cracker with the beach right over the road.
Well done to the local crew for the Garden Art, it looks great.
Fiona & Chris, two empty nesters put their dreams of doing something different into reality… Now back in a house, they were living in their Motorhome, come along for the ride.
We left Colins POP early in the morning in Mangawhai and cruised over the hill past Langs Beach and onto Waipu Cove. It really is a stunning little spot well served by a great Restaurant, a Dairy and a Fish and Chip shop.
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