Kauricoast2017

Glinks by the Sea

That sounds much posher than Glinks Gully 🙂

About 20 k’s South west of Dargaville is the small settlement of Glinks Gully. There are  lots of Baches and homes there with a fabulous beach. See Rafe’s Tracker map at the bottom for directions.

Click on the images for Hi Res or a Slideshow

I arrived around lunchtime with the intention of staying the night but given the state of the campground and how long and low Rafe is, I decided not to stay but its a neat spot if you’ve got a smaller and higher ground clearance Motorhome.

On the beach

The views are stunning straight down to the beach. There is an honesty box in the roundhouse like kitchen and the cost to stay with the NZMCA discount would have been $10 for me on my own.

The Kitchen roundhouse with Rafe behind

I parked Rafe thankfully without scraping on anything underneath and then went for a look around. I wandered down to the beach to check it out and once you get to the edge of the water, you can look in both directions and it is endless. The sun was shining and it was a great day so it was perfect for checking it all out.

The view walking down the road
A novel way to use an old watertank
On the beach looking south
The playground by the beach
Rafes park on the hill

I walked back to the camp up the hill and decided that I wouldn’t relax worrying about getting Rafe out in the morning so decided to head out again. I ended up having a 10-15 minute conversation with one of the local farmers parked in the middle of the road. The locals are really friendly and he was encouraging me to head down to Poutu to check out the lighthouse at the bottom of the peninsula. Another time..

Looking north

A great place to stay but I would recommend only for Motorhomes less than 7 metres and with plenty of ground clearance.

Rafes Tracker Map to Glinks Gully

Glinks Gully on the coast
Kauricoast2017

Historical Parking with a View

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One of the places I’ve been wanting to check out while in Dargaville was the Museum at the top of the hill. The GPS was giving me strange messages that it wasn’t available but it seems they’ve changed the roading to get there. My GPS just didn’t know wbaout it!

Click on the images for Hi Res or a Slideshow

Dargaville from the Museum

Up the hill overlooking Dargaville is the Museum which provides Motorhome parking and also has a dump station and some outside Toilets near the parking with the most amazing view over the Dargaville area.

Museum parking

I had a quick nosey through the museum and it is amazing how much happened in this area with the river and shipping. The Gum Digging history is well documented too along with the Dalmation settlers who largely were involved with the Kauri Gum industry.

On the edge of Kaipara on the way to Dargaville
The view from the parking area with the Gumdiggers village in the foreground
Amazing murals on the wall
Some bits from wrecks found around Dargaville
Some old appliances in the Museum
Parking at the Museum

Its a great wee town Dargaville, lots to see and plenty of places to stay.

One of the murals on the wall of the Dargaville Museum

This would be one of the premo places to park for a night or two and the Museum is a must do too.

Kauricoast2017

Peace and Quiet

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What a beautiful place Pahi is. We’ve been here before I was doing this blog with friends just after some heavy rain. We had to park on the gravel so its not an all weather grassy surface.

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Looking down from up the road.

Pahi is about 15 minutes off the main highway through to Dargaville. It is at the end of a peninsula south of Paparoa.

A local anti Fouling his boat

When I arrived, I was met with a sign in the office to make myself comfortable in a park of my choice and they’ll catch up with me. For $10 (with NZMCA discount) per person per night with power, it is exceptionally good value and its in a lovely spot in the northern reaches of the Kaipara Harbour.

All tide ramp

Apparently it is one of the few all tide ramps in the whole of the Kaipara.

Just like in the travel magazines!

The wharf is great for a walk down or just for a look around. There are some really quirky little houses there dotted around the waterfront, almost like an old fishing village you see in the magazines.

The office
Looking across to Whakapirau
Looking north past Whakapirau
Just like in the travel magazines!
Close to the water
Dawn with Fog
Pahi Hall by the wharf

The camp is a Doc park with the staff being managed by a local committee and apparently it works well. There is an old Hotel which had its license transferred to the Paparoa pub in the 50’s. It is still in great shape but is now a private house. The camp has a dump stations and a recently renovated toilet and shower block.

Looking across to Whakapirau

A lovely spot which you could easily spend a few days at and run by some really nice people.

There was a good 3G Internet signal here but I forgot to speedtest it.

Rafe’s Track to Pahi

Pahi

 

Auckland Parks, Close to home, Day Trips, Marine

Busy with the Boats

Tim and Annette, my younger Aussie based brother and his wife had been over for the weekend but they were busy doing their own thing so we thought we’d escape from the house and head off to an Auckland City Park. We were headed for Shakespear Park at the end of the Whangaparoa Peninsula, North of Auckland city.

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Rafe in the trees

We had the last park left available as they had restricted the CSC parking to 10 Motorhomes due to the amount of water from the recent heavy rain. It was busier than I’ve ever seen it and most had opted to park on the gravel parks where they could. One of the more obvious vehicles there was Roy and Bernice Vannini who were camp hosts.

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The city doesn’t seem far away

While the weather was good, I went for my customary walks around to see what was happening. There was action everywhere as there were more tan 300 odd sea scouts in boats at the main camp at the other end of the beach. They were having a great time in their boats with plenty of people around in rescue craft keeping an eye on them. Others were just enjoying the beach and the park.

Click on the images for Hi Res or a Slideshow

Its a lovely spot and its the first time I’ve seen it this busy.

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Looking great

Bernice and Roy came over to catch up which was fantastic as I’ve been following their blog over the last year or so. They’re fulltimers and have been for years in their 10m American Bus. Tons of room and they’ve done a lovely job of making it work for them. They’ve recently done a 3 month Motorhome trip around Europe so Fiona and I were keen to hear how they went and mistakes not to make 🙂 We’re heading over there in June and really looking forward to it.  It sounds like they had a great trip and they gave us heaps of ideas and tips, books to read and so on. Very helpful !

Everyones on the gravel. Roy and Bernice’s Bus 2nd along.
Plenty going on
Sea Scouts having a ball
All aboard
Looking out to Rangitoto Island
Rafe on the gravel. Roy and Bernice’s bus by the tree on the left.

Shakespear is a funny place where the Internet is concerned as the first time we came here was without aerials and we got a very slow connection, useable but just ! The second time was later last year and we couldn’t get anything.. with aerials but without the patch for the aerials so I suspect they weren’t working. This time, it was pretty good for a known problem area,  but we’ve got the aerials working well now  but it was slow but usable and it seemed reliable. A tricky wee spot!

With Tim and Annette coming in for tea for their last night in NZ and after having a cup of tea in the morning with Roy and Bernice, we headed back to town.

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Checking it all out

Its always nice coming to Shakespear and its so close too.

The Netspeed Speedtest for this site
Download: 5.96 Mbps
Upload: 1.93 Mbps
Ping: 53 ms
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&q=-36.613140,174.824475

The image from Rafes Tracker.

Rafes Track .. the red dots showing where I went faster than 90k!
Coromandel 2017, Waikato

The Corner Shops

We’ve watched this place over the last year or so but it just gets better and better. The food is consistently good and its a neat place to stop.

Click on the image for Hi res or a Slideshow

Nice Parking area

There is one Motorhome park on the gravel but there is also plenty of solid lawn parking for Caravans and Motorhomes while you visit.

The “Style Shop” 🙂

It is right on the turnoff to Thames on Highway 27 as you’re heading towards Thames. Turn left at the Thames turnoff coming from the motorway and its on your right.

There is plenty of parking. There is a kids play area for the nippers, great food and reasonably priced. Style shop is there too in a seperate building, for the Mums to load up while Dad soaks up the sun outside 🙂 … a dress shop 🙂

Fiona’s Date Scone
Nice outdoor area
An easy guide to Coromandel
Playground for the young ones

We stopped here on the way to catch up with friends at Coromandel for a scone and a cuppa. Although we were early, around 10:30ish, it was just getting busy so its good to see they’re doing so well.

 

Coromandel 2017

Top Value Parking with Top Value Tucker

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The Coromandel Hotel is a real surprise.

The front of the Hotel

By walking down the street beside it reveals a nice private flat powered Motorhome park behind the hotel nicely planted out with Palms and with a nice outlook. It is $25 (for two)a night and includes the use of the nearby Backpackers Toilet and Showers. It also has a dump station.

Click on the images for Hi Res or a Slideshow

Solid ground too.
The Backpackers with the Dump Station, Showers and Toilets.

We arrived early on a Friday and checked in for a weekend at Coromandel. Our friends Dianne and Gary were staying in a motel room in the Coromandel Top 10 right opposite so it worked perfectly.

We went for a walk down to the town which takes all of 10 minutes and enjoyed a cuppa at one of the many cafes down there and after checking into some of the shops wandered back to Rafe. There is a Laundromat there too.

Nicely setup parking and has a dump station and fresh water
The Laundry is easy to spot
Coromandel Town
I love the Husband Waiting chairs

That night it rained and we popped over to the Motel unit and enjoyed a few laughs and glasses of wine before heading to the Coromandel Hotel for tea. It was stunning. Gary and I had a carpetbag steak each, Fiona had a seafood chowder which had huge pieces of seafood in it and Dianne had the roast pork. The best was still to come.. liquorice ice cream with sambuca.. and it was huge. We all hooked in. This is really something to see and even better to eat.

Looking down the back

A neat place to stay and great place to eat as well.

I have done a blog on this before but this is the first time we’ve stayed here and I’m pleased we did!

One thing I did find interesting is like Simpsons Beach, I had to switch the router back to 3G. Although it worked on 4G, It was significantly faster on 3G.. see the speedtests below.

The Netspeed speedtests for this site.

3G
Download: 22.95 Mbps
Upload: 2.41 Mbps
Ping: 67 ms

4G
Download: 5.67 Mbps
Upload: 0.08 Mbps
Ping: 72 ms
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&q=-36.755005,175.499769

Coromandel 2017

The Coroglen Tavern

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We were on our way to Whitianga and were told about the magic Mussel Fritters that come from the Coroglen Tavern.

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Jed and Michelle outside their Hotel

3 years ago, Landlady (In the traditional Coro St fashion) Michelle and her other half Jed, bought the pub from Michelles parents and are redeveloping it as they can.

As responsible hosts, they are providing an area for Motorhomers to spend the night after enjoying their hospitality. As Michelle said, “They haven’t finished here yet”.

The Motorhome parking area. Plenty of room.

The Coroglen Tavern is the local for a wide area of Coromandel and is a well known Saturday night music hotspot.

The music area
Inside the bar area
Rafe parked outside

We timed it beautifully with our arrival bang on lunchtime and it was very hard to go past the Seafood Basket and of course the amazing Mussel Fritters. YUM. This is a serious must do!

Mussel Fritters .. YUM!
The Seafood basket

There is parking around the back or we just parked Rafe in front.

Rafe parked outside

Jed and Michelle and their staff were very helpful and as I said, the food was something out of this world. Try it 🙂

Coromandel 2017

Cruzin in Thames

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The  sign said “Park in an empty park, plug yourself in and make yourself comfortable and we’ll be round”. .. or words of that effect. We were just parking when a huge smile appeared around the corner of the next door Motorhome helping us to park.

Click on an images for Hi Res or a Slideshow

I’d heard all about Cruzin N Stop before and was keen to try it out. It is right in the middle of Thames and is perfectly located for checking out the shops and cafes so I was immediately scoring huge brownie points with Fiona 🙂

Rafe in the park

For $20 including power for NZMCA members with toilets and a shower. Its a neat wee place to stay right in the middle of things. Its not a place you would go for a holiday given that it comes with in town distractions but its safe, handy, good value and the people are really helpful.

We stayed the night here on route to Coromandel. The road up the coast was closed due to slips and washouts and after a stroll around the town and a good gander at some antique shops, we headed back to Rafe and settled down some good old fashioned Netflix movies while it rained. Fiona on one TV, me on the other 🙂

Gordon outside Cruz N Stop
The Junction Hotel

The next morning, we walked the other way and after a visit to the Dump Station, we were off over the hill.

The Brian Boru Hotel

A neat spot to stop for a night or two, very very handy to everything in Thames and great people. At $20 with power and other facilities in the middle of town, it’s pretty reasonable.

The Netspeed Speedtest for this site.
Download: 33.20 Mbps
Upload: 23.19 Mbps
Ping: 48 ms
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&q=-37.137629,175.542751
Rafe’s Tracker Map

Coromandel 2017, Preparation, Quirky things

Right on the Edge

We were right on the edge at Simpsons Beach by Whitianga.  A fabulous spot which we’ve been to a few times before.

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Ten steps to the water.

Its on a farm owned by the Simpson family which runs along the foreshore and behind which they’ve been letting people camp at for many years. They charge $10 per vehicle, Motorhome or Caravan per night and donate the money to a cause of their choice. A fantastic gesture and they’re super nice people.

The Beach

One of the quirky things about this area is the Netspeed Mobile Internet coverage. There is a 4G beam from Whitianga out over the water but Simpsons Beach is right on the edge of it but more in the beam for 3G. Because it is 1 click into the 4G, it can’t do anything useful and surfing the web or anything else is a waste of time.. nothing happens !  A lot more happens on 4 bars of 3G than 1 blip of 4G!

What I found you had to do is go into the Huawei App on your ipad or iphone and turn the “Auto” feature off to “3G” so that the router will settle for 3G and not be too ambitious 🙂

The Home screen on the app..Select the Settings Cog

The steps on a Ipad app.. Click on the settings cog on the right hand top of the screen. Then click on Network, then Network Carrier. You’ll see Preffered Network at the top.. click on that to get 3 G and select it and back out (without touching anything else 🙂 ) Its a good idea to reboot the router at this point and it will be away with plenty of throughput.

Click on the images below to follow the gallery in order.

Select Network
Select Network carrier
Select preferred Network
As you come out, you should see this.

This will affect any wireless carrier anywhere. Its all about your position relative to a transmitting tower.

There must be other spots around NZ where this happens too. Just remember to return the settings to “Auto” after you leave Simpsons Beach or another place like it.

Great spot

Despite this minor alteration to get Fiona her Netflix fix, Simpsons Beach is a fabulous spot and we love staying here. Once when it was chocker in the middle of summer, the local Mr Whippy van cruised through for ice creams 🙂

The Netspeed Speedtest from this site
Download: 9.11 Mbps
Upload: 4.01 Mbps
Ping: 69 ms
Connection Type: Wi-Fi
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&q=-45.872500,170.503600
Rafes Track to Coromandel from Simpsons Beach
From Simpsons Beach to Coromandel
Coromandel 2017

The Punters Turned Up

While we stayed at Hahei, between us, we decided to check out Whitianga for brunch and a coffee. So 8 of us piled into two cars and off we went.

Traffic in Whitianga

The place was chocker. Cars and people everywhere you looked. There were even traffic jams !

Click on the images for Hi res or a Slideshow

Dianne and Fiona enjoying the markets

There was a nice town market happening with lots of stalls set up in a square.

Its amazing walking around and seeing some of the expressions of stall holders and people looking. I went for a walk and checked out the Marina.

Gary found a new board table !
At the markets
Whitianga’s main street
Down at the Marina
The Marina

After a look around, we all headed back to the Hahei Motorcamp for the 4pm Happy Hour while looking out over the beach.

Happy at Hahei

We were joined again by our neighbours from Canada, Eric and Mary Anne who amazed us all with what they had packed in to their trip since arriving in Christchurch just three weeks earlier.

There is still some energy in that water

A neat night in paradise.

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.