The ride though to Mokau from Otorohanga was pretty good but the forecast was for plenty of rain, so I wondered about the Tainui Wetere Domain campsite which is all grass. I needn’t have worried as underneath the grass was all sand and only puddles around were pretty much on the road in.
A Great atmosphere
I’ve driven past this Campground run by the local community by the rugby grounds and after reading its rave reviews, I was keen like Steve to stay here. It’s a fabulous place right next to a lagoon with very sheltered swimming for the children.
Settling in at MokauThe two Dethleffs.
After parking up, I slotted straight into a powered site and Steve popped in beside us. I was surprised we’d be able to get a powered site as it was really busy, but most were happy to be without.
Steve and I went for a walk down to the beach for a look around. It’s an amazing spot.
The wee estuary beyond the sandhillsA bit choppy further outThe two Dethleffs at Waitara
Another great night of catching up together and in the morning, we all set off towards Waitara for a quick stop at a supermarket and where Steve knew of a spot to have lunch by a fantastic raging sea… it made some nice images.
The water at Waitara
After a cup of tea and a look about, we set off to New Plymouth.
One of the loveliest spots to stay is at the Mighty River Domain on the banks of the Waikato River.
Complete with its own Cafe, it is also home to competitive rowing in New Zealand and most mornings you’ll find the nation’s elite Rowers and Kayakers going for row.
It is also very cost effective to stay there too.
Plenty of space up on the top levelThe bottom area
We last stayed here with 25 Motorhomes with the Dethleffs Owners group get together last year. It worked well and was a lot of fun with two communal meals and lots of laughs.
Click on the Gallery below for enlarged images.
The rowing grandstand
The Outlook !
An interesting photoshoot while I was there 🙂
Part of the playground
Nice outdoor area from the Kitchen
I met some neat people from New Plymouth while I was here who I caught up with later.
Friends down on the lower level.
There are two levels of powered parking, ablutions blocks everywhere you look (to cater for rowers) and plenty of places for some great walks. There is also a bike trail into Cambridge which is about 7 k’s away.
Part of the playground
GPS instructions to get here included a trip across the top of a dam which you can’t do in most Motorhomes so the best way there is via Cambridge.
It has been a while since I was last out here in Pukekohe, a few years perhaps but boy it has grown. There are new houses everywhere you look, and the town has grown too.
Click on any Image to Enlarge
I checked in with Sarah at the Pukekohe A&P grounds where they’ve provided Motorhome parking for some years now. She very kindly showed me where everything was and after parking the van, I went for a walk over the road to the Z Zone.
I stopped in at the local Hollywood Bakery for a coffee and then popped into a few local shops. before heading back to the park.
When I first started coming here about 8 years or so ago, it was all grass with lots of mud when it was wet and a couple of power poles.
Ian was the man in charge, and I understand he is still involved. He has done a magnificent job over the years of developing this into a really nice area to stay.
Now there are Toilets, showers and a coin operated Laundry in the new(ish) amenities block. There is a circular gravel road which runs past many of the sites and on past the dump station. So no more muddy exits 🙂 .. Ans all at a reasonable price too.
The Amenities block, now with a LaundryAnd a Dump Station!
There are a lot more power points all set out with plenty of space on big sites. It’s a fantastic setup.
Click on the Gallery below for an Enlarged Slideshow
The Amenities block, now with a Laundry
Just across the road is one of Pukekohe’s big shopping areas with the Warehouse and several other big stores. Pukekohe’s main street is just a few steps further on.
Having not been here for a while and seeing the changes, Ian, Sarah and the crew have done a fantastic job providing some Motorhome and Caravan accommodation in an area where there wasn’t any.
39 Dethleffs Motorhomes of all shapes and sizes arrived in Miranda ready to catch up with old friends and see other Motorhomes. There were quite a few first timers at this event but also the old hands that could remember others names to catch up with people they met earlier.
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The Coupes Arriving
The first day was about settling the vans down and wandering around to see where everyone was and having a swim in the hot pool.
Later in the day, there was happy hour for everyone to get together and there was an impromptu shared meal between a dozen or so friends in the evening.
There was a really funny moment after the meal when we were all sitting around having a few drinks and a few laughs. There was a group of about 20 odd teenagers on the table next to us and there were about 8 of us by then. A lady in the group stood up to make a speech and as soon as she started, one of our group started singing happy birthday and others joined in. She was saying no no, then gave up but our group stopped singing. Everyone was laughing. Then we found out it was an engagement so there were lots of congratulations from us too! Great time. 😂😂
The pot luckers on Friday Night
Because Fiona was working late on the Friday, she arrived in the car around 8:30.
The cyclists setting off for Kaiaua and the Cafe
The next morning was the bike ride to Kaiaua or to a cafe up the road. There were about 19 bike riders on bikes! A great turnout. Most were riding the 13k’s or so to the Kaiaua for lunch.
On the trail to Kaiaua
Fiona and I followed them and got pictures of them at stops with the car.
On the trail to Kaiaua
When we arrived at the pub, well before the cyclists, Quin the Manager had just arrived and was about to open so perfect timing.
At the Kaiaua Pub for lunch
At the Kaiaua Pub for lunch
We all went out to the back beer garden with the bikes and ordered coffees and lunch. Fiona and I had an amazing pizza.
The bikes at the pub
About an hour or so there, we started the trek back.
To see an Enlarged slideshow, click on the Gallery below
Bruce and Judys Globe 4 (Rafe’s twin)
Catching up in the driveway
Liz and Nolina
Catching up on Friday
Friday night happy hour
Friday night
Friday night Happy Hour
On the trail to Kaiaua
On the trail to Kaiaua
Rays Rest
On the trail to Kaiaua
On the trail to Kaiaua
At Rays Rest
The Team piccy
Saturday night
Steve and Troy still behaving 🙂
Saturday night eating fest 🙂
Back to the hot pool and then later at 4, we had the team photo. Where we normally do the piccy was really boggy, so we had to move out to the motorhome parking.
The Team piccy
Happy Hour came next, and the place was chocker with people.
Pot Luck heaven
Sat Night with the shared meal.
The Buffet 🙂
Then came the shared meal and the meals were restaurant quality… just amazing and everyone got a great feed with some going back for seconds. Fantastic.
On the last day (Sunday Morning) we caught up again for a farewell coffee together.
Bruce and Judys Globe 4, Above, (Rafe’s twin) 9 years old and over 100000ks and never missed a beat… a testament to the old 3 litre Ivecos! Rafes got 102000ks, exactly the same Motor, Motorhome and colour!
Dethleffs everywhere you look
A great event with lots of fun and thanks to everyone for coming.
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.
Click on any Image to enlarge
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.
Click on the Gallery below for an enlarged Slideshow
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 🙂
A few days away in Rotorua sounded like a good plan so after restocking the fridge and topping up with a bit of water, we set off for Rotorua. Straight down the motorway with the new Hamilton bypass, it was too easy.
The unusual Covered Boardwalk with the Facilities in the middle.
The park is quite different from your average holiday park in that is has a covered boardwalk that surrounds the park and meets at the newish ablution block. It means you can park close and avoid getting too wet if its pouring with rain to get the facilities. Clever.
After an afternoon of a few swims as you do, we settled down for the night. The forecast was evil with heavy rain and maybe some thunder too.
About 4am, we were woken up by this massive thunderclap and huge lightning. You could feel the vibration of the thunder through the motorhome even through the bedding! There were a couple of more strikes and then things settled down to just heaps of rain and wind.
In the morning, we woke up to a fridge which had been on power, a bit slow to respond and it was decidedly warmer than it should have been. We thought maybe it had been spiked.
Reading the Herald on the iPad, we saw that at the Golf course just a 100 or so metres away over the road, a Cyprus tree had exploded, and bits went flying up to 50 metres away after a lightning strike. We figured this must be what we heard at 4am.
The Facilities
The fridge was still a bit lethargic so after talking to my son, he suggested (I should have thought of this) that reset the fridge and try it on gas until we get back to Auckland to save our food. The fridge worked brilliantly and when we got home, we tested it on power with some ice and glass of water and it passed with flying colours 🙂
Outside the French Cafe
After getting over the fridge and getting things together, we headed into Rotorua on a bus and headed to Fiona’s favourite French Cafe in Rotorua. As always, the food was fantastic and from there, we went for a wander through the shopping area.
Fiona at her favourite French Cafe
Rotorua always has that holiday feel to it with the thermal smell and all the touristy stuff happening. It’s a great spot and we can never get enough of it. The Hot pools of course make it even better.
We finished off at Farmers and Noel Leeming and some of the big shops. A cruise back on the Bus and we were back in for another swim in the Hot Pools. Bliss.
Rafe’s tracker map to Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park – Armada GPS
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.
Click on any image to enlarge
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.
Click on the Gallery below to see an enlarged slideshow
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.
I was a bit unlucky to catch a bug doing the rounds, so we couldn’t get away over Kings Birthday weekend. It then hung around for another week 😐
The following week came around and Fiona suggested I get out of the house and escape in Rafe and get some fresh air! Yippee .. What a great idea!
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Just over the road early in the morning.
The easy bolt hole from Auckland, the Hot Pool at Miranda or the Kaiaua NZMCA park and blob out by the coast. It’s just lovely to be back out on the road.
Click on the Gallery below for an enlarged slideshow
The dog area
The pool
The bike trail to Kaiaua
The weather forecast was awful, and it was cold, so the easy choice was a few days at Miranda.
Miranda is close and easy, especially when it’s a bit on the cool side with not too much driving and not too much diesel. On the way, Rafe clicked over 100,000k’s too!
The new Childrens area
A few days in the pool meeting some nice people was fun.With the NZMCA park at Kaiaua, it’s great to have some extra options with Motorhome accommodation and right next to the pub and Fish and Chips too. !
The irony of the trip is at the end of three days, I still wasn’t quite right but it was really nice to get away at a great place.
A nice few days in Paradise!
Rafe’s tracker map back from the Miranda – Armada GPS
I don’t know how many times I’ve photographed and driven past the loos at Kawakawa, but Fiona and I had both seen the publicity on the new Art centre in Whangarei and it was on the must do list 🙂
Click on any Image to Enlarge
Nice easy parking
We arrived in Whangarei just after lunch after stopping in at Manganui for a piece of fish and a Scallop or two for morning tea 🙂
Very styley 60’s 🙂
With the weather looking decidedly dodgy with wind and rain, I decided on the Whangarei Central Holiday Park which is easy walking distance to anywhere in town. It’s also very reasonably priced with very nice people running it. Everything works and its handy!
After settling down Rafe, we set off with our umbrellas towards the new art centre, about 10 minutes’ walk. It’s amazing! The first thing to do while it was not raining was to check out the dome and the roof garden. There are some really rare trees from the islands there too with curled leaves… interesting but to think how quickly this has come together, it’s amazing and on the roof too.
Back downstairs on a wavy tiled floor, you feel almost like you’re on the water. Up one floor for the gallery on Hundertwasser are lots of examples of his art and design, and basically several rooms on how he did what he did and when. Really interesting artwork but with his unique style.
Fiona in the tower. The Marina in the background
He also had an amazing motor Sailer which I think he might have sailed out from Europe.
We spent an hour or so here and then went for a coffee at the Centre’s Cafe.
Some of the art
By the time we finished here it was time for tea. We found an arcade in the main street full of Restaurants and bars and eventually settled on an Indian Restaurant called Tumeric. It would have to be the best Indian meal we’ve both had for some time and was very reasonable. Amazing food.
Click on the Gallery below for an Enlarged Slideshow
From the tower out over the roof top garden towards the city.
Looking out from the tower
Lots of tiles and Coulour
Fiona in the Gallery
It was getting dark as left the restaurant and we ambled our way back to Rafe at the Park.
Outside our new favourite Indian Restaurant 🙂
A really interesting day starting in Ahipara, Manganui for Fish, ticked off the Hundertwasser building and a great Indian meal… what a day:-)
Rafe’s tracker map to the Whangarei Central Holiday Park – Armada GPS
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
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.
Steve and I went for a walk down to the beach for a look around. It’s an amazing spot.
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