Tag Archives: History

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.

Click on the Images for Hi Res or a Slideshow

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

 

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

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

Auckland Parks, Friends

The Wedding at the Fort

What a fun weekend. Our old friends Mark and Tina’s eldest daughter Alisha was getting married to Tom and they had chosen The Officers Mess at Fort Takapuna as the wedding venue.  A fantastic spot and where Fiona’s family had spent some years in the officers housing by Narrow Neck beach.

The roof of the old fort with the Officers Mess behind and the carpark.

Just as it says, The officers Mess has been converted into a Wedding Venue and Café and was the old Officers Mess for the Army and later used by the Navy as well.  Its a lovely old building which looks out over the harbour towards Rangitoto Island.

Click on the images for Hi Res or a slideshow

Fiona’s dad Norm was CO of Fort Cautley which was then the HQ for the Army’s 3rd Battalion. There were officers and senior NCO houses from the current buildings all the way down to Narrow Neck Beach.

Narrow Neck beach. This grass is where all the officers housing was.

Fort Takapuna has a huge history. It was originally built to fend off the Russians in the 1860’s and later updated for the two world wars in case the Japanese or Germans got down here. It is now looked after by DOC and more information on it can be seen here.
Its well worth a look around and the carpark is huge, perfect for Motorhomes and Caravans.

The Old Fort

When Friday came around, Fiona and I decided we would make a weekend of it and stay in Devonport on Friday night. We earlier met our old friends Dani and Grant at the Esplanade Hotel for a few cold ones and afterwards tea at the wharf.

One of the Gun Emplacements
The old Gun Emplacements and Rangitoto
A few words of wisdom from an old fella (Gary) to the groom 🙂
Proud Dad Mark with Alisha and MC Gary doing the sounds.
All ready for the Wedding in the Officers Mess
The Officers Mess
The view across to the city
Rafe and the Fuso in the carpark. Gary later moved right next to us.
Rafe in the carpark with the Barrack buildings.

The next day was wedding day and I packed up Rafe and headed off to the venue where we had permission to stay overnight in the carpark as guests.

In the carpark

I spent the day having a really good look around the fort while Fiona was getting her hair done.  There was a soccer game on at the playing field there which was fun to watch. I have no idea who was playing but it was fun to watch and I really enjoyed shooting a few piccies of it. I haven’t photographed any soccer since my days on the Herald and the Auckland Star so it was fun. Soccer is one of the hardest games to photograph as so I was pleased that I got a couple or reasonable piccies from it being as rusty as I am.

One of the better soccer piccies 🙂

The forecast rain held off so the ceremony was held outside looking out on the harbor. It was a bit of a catchup with old friends for us as Gary, Chris, Mark and Tina are all old Boatie mates along with Geoff and Bev who were also there.  We were all put on Table 4! Our friends Gary and Chris were joint MC’s and they did a great job. It was nice to catch up with the extended families and old friends too, many of them had come over from Aussie for the occasion.

The Wedding Service with a view

The wedding went well, the food was great and it was a fun night. We finished the night in Rafe with “Table 4” friends for a nightcap and cups of tea.

Rafe’s Track map

The way home from Fort Takapuna
Auckland Parks, Close to home

Beautiful Awhitu

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After a good solid weekend of babysitting, we thought we’d escape for our last night before Fiona had to return to work.

The Brook Homestead Wharf
The Peninsula Campground at Awhitu

I wasn’t really in the mood for huge driving for one night so we figured that up the Awhitu peninsula might be quite nice. I called Auckland City and it seems that even in the height of the Summer silly season, you can still use your camping pass at Awhitu and other parks like it. 

Don’t forget to click on the Images for Hi res or a Slideshow

Peninsula Campground. Plenty of room.
Peninsula Campground. Plenty of room.

After booking in on the phone, we were off heading for Awhitu. We arrived around 1pm and settled Rafe down in the Peninsula Campground.

When you book with the Council, the choices are Self contained or not.  When you get to Awhitu, it is Brook Campground or the Peninsula campground. I was a bit confused as to where we were supposed to park as there is no mention of SCC and no signposts 🙂
It wasn’t until we had the downloaded map off the council website that we saw two Motorhome emblems on both the Peninsula and the Brook campgrounds with tags saying SCC camping that we were happy with where we had parked. 

The  Brook Campground which is behind the Brook Homestead and the Peninsula camp is beside the Homestead and closer to the water. Both have nice toilets and great rubbish collection points and both are an easy walk to the beach. 

The Cottage
The Cottage

After settling down and having a look around both Brook Homestead and the Cottage, which they used before the Homestead was built, we sat down for lunch and just blobbed in the sun.  A perfect spot for watching the planes coming in to Auckland Airport and they were far enough away not to be a nuisance with sound. A lovely spot.

The Brook Homestead
The Cottage
Peninsula Campground. Plenty of room.
Nice Bbq’s with the wood all stacked ready to go.
Nice looking loos
Fiona dumping rubbish she found on the beach.

In the morning, we went for a walk down to the beach and had a look around. The Ranger popped in and checked the park so it was then I knew for sure we were ok where we parked although we were on our own. There was no one else there which surprised me.

The Beach with the tide out. Pip gathers out on the mudflats
The Beach with the tide out. Pipi gathers out on the mudflats

The park is huge and there are lots of great walks which we’ll check out next time we’re here but it’s a great spot and not too far away from the big smoke.

AwhituWe only had a night to check this place out before having to head back but we have visited here before but not stayed. See the earlier post.  It is a magic spot with a nice beach and plenty of places to explore. We’ll be back for sure.

AwhituThere is good 4g internet here which surprised me, being where it is although it’s not fast but good enough for Netflix.

The Netspeed Speedtest
Download: 5.84 Mbps
Upload: 1.55 Mbps
Ping: 54 ms

Rafes Tracker map to get here

awhitu

Northland

The Kauri Museum

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What an amazing place. A must do if you’re in the Kaiwaka – Dargaville area and well worth seeing.

Click on the images for Hi Res and a Slideshow

Kauri dam
Kauri dam

Those with self contained vans can stay the night there too and there is also the Matakohe Holiday park a short walk away.

A full steam sawmill setup
A full steam sawmill setup

The museum is a fantastic collection of all things kauri and has a full Sawmill Hall full of all the things that were used to prepare and process kauri.  There is even a model of bean Rock lighthouse made of Kauri Gum.

An early caterpillar Bulldozer
The Sawmill Hall – amazing
The last Logan kauri yacht
There was also a barrel making display and its amazing how so many other businesses benefitted from the Kauri Industry.
The washing machine section
Extracting gum
Pit sawing
Bean Rock Lighthouse made of Gum
Tudor Collins donated his massive negative library to the museum
Free overnighting outside for CSC vehicles

Local Photographer and famous for his collections of historic images, Tudor Collins donated his huge negative library to the museum when he found it was being set up. There are some fabulous images on display.

Kauri dressers
Kauri dressers and Tudor Collins images

Allow at least a morning to do it properly but you could easily spend a day there.

East Coast 2017

Cruising by the River

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Staying at Mangaweka! What’s there? .. A fabulous campground by the river and a neat wee town bulging with personality 🙂
Gary and Dianne had finished up in Taupo and we’re ready to come out to play again in Rosie. We arranged to meet at the riverside campground at Mangaweka. I’ve been wanting to try the riverside camping thing for some time and the reviews show these campgrounds are pretty good.

Click on the images for Hi Res or a slideshow

Rafe and Rosie with the cliffs of Mangaweka
Rafe and Rosie with the cliffs of Mangaweka

Fiona and I arrived early in the afternoon which was just as well as it had been really busy and it was first in best dressed. At $9 per person including power it was sensational value. We met some really nice caravanners parked in the centre, who were packing up to go, said we could grab their spot which was nice, and just as they left after 20 minutes or so, Gary and Dianne arrived in Rosie the XLI.

Fiona, Gary and Dianne on the bridge between the two camps
Fiona, Gary and Dianne on the bridge between the two camps
Looking back to the bridge
Looking back to the bridge

We plugged in, settled down and then set off over the bridge to pay at the Awastone Resort which is setup to be a little more upmarket than the campground.
Both campgrounds are owned and run by Paul and Tricia and their family. The bar, cafe, cabins, with gravel based parks and power right by the river, are $38 for a night for two. We could not go without having a few glasses of wine with homemade sausage rolls on the deck in the sun. After that we walked back over the bridge to celebrate Gary’s birthday. It was good to see them again. We we’re going to celebrate Gary’s birthday in Martinborough .

The Main Street
The Main Street

The next day we walked into the village to check it out. It’s an interesting town as State Highway 1 was moved to bypass the Main Street quite a long time ago and all the old buildings are still there. It’s like time stood still. We met a friend of one of the shop owners and it seems like there is a real arty, creative sort of community getting established there.

The Barbers shop
The Mangaweka Hotel
The kitchen facilities
Rosie and Rafe with Gary lounging

After having a look around and a cuppa at the cafe, as we headed back to the Campground, we tried to collar a couple of escaped sheep from a paddock and return them but after 20 minutes or so of pretending to be Sheep dogs and losing badly, we gave it away and carried on after making sure the sheep were heading away from State Highway 1. Isn’t it funny how the sheep can spot some townies pretending to be shepherds a mile away 🙂

The shops in the Main Street
The shops in the Main Street

This is another classic case of a place that’s usually a thoroughfare for most of us being completely overlooked as a neat destination. With both campgrounds here on either side of the river with different price points, they’re well setup for your next visit.

Rafe's Track to Mangaweka
Rafe’s Track to Mangaweka
East Coast 2017

Charming Greytown

After we arrived in Greytown, we started looking at where we going to stay. The GPS directed us to a neat little POP on the side of a local contractor, John and his wife Rosie. They have century started growing pumpkins on part of his 5 acres in the middle of Greytown. Lovely people who couldn’t do enough for us.

Click on the images for Hi Res or a slideshow

At the POP .
At the POP .

We setup on their POP area which is half grass and half gravel. From the street you wouldn’t know any of this existed and it was so quiet.
We walked from their into Greytown shops, about 10 minutes walk and spent the afternoon in Greytown. The whole town basically is set around the Main Street which is full of original old buildings still being used and maintained.

The original Butchers shop
The original Butchers shop

The next morning, Rob, Helen and Chloe left to head up to Taupo to go to a NZMCA Rally for kids which was happening. After our farewells, we headed around to the local campground so I could charge up some batteries and flick the hose over Rafe to get the salt off from the pinnacles as it still hadn’t really rained.

One of the more unusual tents
One of the more unusual tents

The campground is great and very reasonably priced. It’s huge and incorporates a huge playground and very much dominated by those in tents which is great so see.

Christmas Presents ?
Tent city
One of the cabins
The Motorhome area

The facilities are nice and clean and it’s all nicely setup. Our park was a bit small for us but the manager was quite happy for us to cover the next parking hole but I managed to park it diagonally within the lines quite easily.
GreytownNice park, great manager and close to town. I think it cost us $32.50 for two including power. At this time of the year, that’s pretty good in my books.

East Coast 2017

Blowing Dogs Off Chains

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After a great New Year’s Eve, we knew the wind was going to blow but I was keen to go for a walk up to the lighthouse and get some piccies.

Click on the images for Hi Res

imageAs we walked down the beach towards Castlepoint Reserve, you could feel the wind building. By the time we started walking up the track to the lighthouse and being exposed to the wind, you really had to hang on and lean into the wind.

Fiona battling with the wind
Fiona battling with the wind

About half way up we were hanging onto the handrail to make sure you didn’t get blown over.. Madness! We weren’t far from the lighthouse now so it was worth persevering. imageThe Lighthouse was built in 1913 so the lighthouse keeper must have had some interesting climbs up the rock to do his thing. These days it is all automated. After a good look around, we headed back down against the wind to find that it had been a steady 40 knots with 60 knot gusts. imageYou could feel the sand stinging your legs from the beach as we walked along. Probably a bit silly really but I’m pleased we did it.

East Coast 2017

At Wallingford with Wonderwoman

Wonderwoman being Jen. She’s the one in the photo with Alfie, her dog. She’s absolutely amazing. She pretty much runs Wallingford Homestead on her own with the help of  Charlotte the chef and her helper Sue,  but it’s really all about Jen.

Click on the images for Hi Res or a slideshow

Jen outside Wallingford Homestead
Jen outside Wallingford Homestead

We had all driven down during the day from Clifton beach and we’re staying the night in the carpark after spending the evening there. Wallingford house is a special place and we were all looking forward to it.

The Tracher, Rafe and Rosie outside Wallingford
The Tracker, Rafe and Rosie outside Wallingford

Wallingford Homestead was built in 1831 by Jen’s late husbands great great great great(not sure how many generations) grandfather JD Ormond.

Rosie, Rafe and the Tracker outside Wallingford
Rosie, Rafe and the Tracker outside Wallingford

Jen and her late husband John moved to what was pretty much a derelict and rundown homestead 15 years or so ago and gave it some real love and turned it into what it is today. She showed us a picture of it with trees growing out it.
On 1800 acres with a full sheep farm and Truffles too, it is now 1400 square feet and comes with 14 bedrooms and numerous bathrooms.

It is used as one of the local meeting places for the locals in the area on a regular basis, the local hunt club and others too.

Not long after we arrived.. It’s still raining!
A nice old shed outside
The poolhouse and the pool
Chloe in the pool in the rain
In the poolhouse. Gary, Fiona, Dianne and Helen
In the poolhouse by the fire. Helen, Gary, Fiona and Dianne
One of the 14 bedrooms
The Kitchen
Wallingford Homestead
Gary getting the bubbly ready
Rob looking for some music

We arrived early (too early) and parked out of the way until a 70th birthday wrapped up with its 50 visitors. Around 4pm, all 7 of us were sitting in Rafe in pouring rain, having cups of tea when Jen knocked on the door and popped in to say she had prepared the poolhouse for a few drinks. The fire was going, some nice piped classical music, the pool was warm and Alfie the dog wanted to play. A great start to the day. Gary spent half an our or so entertaining Alfie with a ball before pouring some bubbly.

WallingfordAn hour or so later, Jen popped over and we got to enjoy this huge fire in the lounge and then into the dining room. It was just like we’d stepped into a history book with Trophy Cups and old pictures and family collectables all around us.

Helen, Fiona and Dianne enjoying the ambience and fire
Helen, Fiona and Dianne enjoying the ambience and fire

Charlotte came out to carve a beast and with Jen, they presented a beautiful country home cooked meal for all of us. It was out of this world.

Us tucking in.. L to R, Helen, Fiona, Rob, Chloe, Dianne and Gary
Us tucking in.. L to R, Helen, Fiona, Rob, Chloe, Dianne and Gary

After tea, Jen gave us a tour around this huge house. It was really something special and I felt very lucky to be invited into their home. Just a wonderful experience and Jen was just the perfect hostess.

Wallingford is about 29k’s south of Waipukarau in the central Hawkes Bay.

Rafe's Track to Wallingford
Rafe’s Track to Wallingford

There was no internet or cell phone reception but you can get wifi from Jen if you’re staying there.