Sunday 6th November
We awoke to grey clouds, so didn't have particularly high hopes for the day ahead. There was light rain by the time we got up but the tent wasn't too wet. After breakfast we started out along the coastal road towards Tauranga. We had planned to stop off in the town of Whakatane, which was just along from Ohope beach but it was pouring with rain, so we didn't bother. It rained most of the way along the coast too, with occasional spells of brightness. Our destination was Mt.Maunganui, which is a beachside suburb of the city of Tauranga. The town gets its name from the mountain that sits right at the tip of the peninsula. Our campsite just happened to be right at the base of the mountain and right on the beach front. When we checked in, we got allocated a cracking site with a view out to the Pacific Ocean. Once we'd got the tent up and ready, we grabbed a quick lunch and then decided to head up Mt.Maunganui. At only 232m high it's was a steep but relatively easy stroll up the side of the extinct volcano. The pathways were very busy with tourists as well as locals, with one unfortunate sole even lugging a pushchair loaded with a baby up with her. We stopped to admire the view a couple of times along the way, which was mainly out across Tauranag Harbour. When we got to the summit, we got the full panorama. Out across the Pacific, across the town of Mt.Maunganui, the city of Tauranga and right round the Bay of Plenty. From one angle, we could even check if our tent was still where we'd left it. It could have been a clearer day but it never seems to be nice when we clamber up a mountain. We spent around 10 minutes or so taking in the views and then headed back down the mountainside to the campsite. We had an errand to run and food to buy, so we walked through the lively town centre of Mt.Maunganui, picking up a snack and a pin badge along the way. We found such a good souvenir shop, we managed to snag ourselves an Auckland badge too, something that had eluded us on our previous visits to Auckland itself. The supermarket was further than we anticipated but we stuck with it, knowing that we could do with the exercise after 2 weeks of cakes back in Taramoa Farm. Once we'd got our shopping, we ventured a different way back to the campsite, along the beach front. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the local council hadn't built a pathway right along the prom, which was a shame, as it would be a great walk along the Pacific coast. For most of the way we walked along a grassy kerb but eventually it did turn into a boardwalk, just as we reached the bottom of the mountain. We dropped our things in the car and then decided to do one more walk before we lost the light. The walk was around the base of Mt.Maunganui. We chose to go anti-clockwise, as it would get the road part of the walk out of the way early on and we'd finish right by our tent as the pathway crossed about 5 metres in front of it. After a few sunny spells it had turned in to a rather dismal, chilly day. As we walked round the base it was very windy but had pleasant views across the Hadbour and the bay. We completed the walk in about 40 minutes just as it started to rain. We took cover in the kitchen for the rest of the night and cooked up our dinner of stir fry and tortilla wraps.
Monday 7th November
Well, what a nightmare morning we had. We woke to torrential rain and howling winds at around 4:30 in the morning. We both felt the cool spray of rain water falling from the tent walls but both decided to roll over and ignore it. After an hour of lying there and listening to the storm that was raging just beyond the tent walls, the water entering the tent became too much to ignore. We packed up the sleeping bags, mattress and blanket and left it in the middle of the tent, while we took cover in the car. Typically, it calmed down the second we got in the car, but we stayed there as we couldn't be bothered to get back in the tent. Despite being rather uncomfortable we must have both slept, as about half 7 we were both awoken by the motion of the car being shaken by the gales coming in from the sea. We peered out the car window to see if the tent was still standing. It was but the winds were so strong, the front vestibule was bent double by the force. We were planning on selling the tent when we got to our next workplace up north, so we made the snap decision to hop out the car and pack it away before it broke or tore and became unsellable. We'd never put away a tent in winds that strong and we don't ever want to do it again. Somehow we kept our feet on the ground when the wind caught the tent at the right angle and almost turned it into a kite. Also, when I say we packed it away, we didn't. We just bundled it into a ball and slung it into the car to come back to later. It had been the plan to stay in Mt.Maunganui for another night as there was a walk and a brewery we wanted to visit. We were miserable and wet though, so we ate breakfast and departed for who knows where. After such a terrible night and an incredibly wet tent we decided we'd earned a night in a cabin somewhere. We found a campsite in a booklet we had and headed towards the town of Cambridge. It was about an hour and a half drive to Cambridge, although the going was tough. It was hilly and windy, so the weather made the roads treacherous. We passed at least one accident on our way and with New Zealand driving standards, we weren't surprised. We made it to the town of Cambridge in one piece and made short work of finding the holiday park. When we arrived though, it turned in to an even worse day. The campsite had ceased to be a “kiwi holiday park” for which we had a discount card for. We were put off by that and that the receptionist was just awful and made no attempt to try and sell the park and area to us. We bided her farewell and left Cambridge in a hurry. We knew off another holiday park a couple of hours up the road towards Auckland, so headed in that direction. We had contemplated stopping in the city of Hamilton and having a look around but the Lonely Planet book we had didn't seem to rate it, so we skirted round Hamilton and carried on through to the town of Port Waikato. We'd stayed in Port Waikato on our way down from Kaitaia, so we knew it was good for what we needed and it was cheap. After a terrible nights sleep, the fact that there was nothing to the town of Port Waikato meant that we could catch up on some much needed sleep. The weather was still pretty shoddy too, which kept us inside for the evening. We had some pasta and mushroom sauce for dinner, which was a welcome change from the normal baked bean sauce we were used to.
Tuesday 8th November
The wind seemed to get so strong during the night we were impressed the cabin was still standing in the morning; our tent wouldn't have stood a chance. On our way out of the campsite we tried our luck with asking whether they still had a charger that we'd left behind on our previous visit back in July. The guy recognised the plug and found it sitting on a windowsill in the back office. We weren't exactly desperate for the charger but as its ours, we thought we'd take it whilst we were there. We also asked about a Lord of the rings location nearby and if it was worth a visit. When the receptionist said the last tourists had told him it was a 100km drive long a metal road, we quickly knocked that on the head. From Port Waikato we headed north towards the familiar city of Auckland. We weren't stopping for long, only to fill up the tank and by some sweets for yet more driving. Highway 1 north of Auckland was a very familiar stretch of road. We'd driven all those months ago when we were heading to Kaitaia to pick the mandarins and we'd driven south when we were escaping Kaitaia for the snow capped mountains of the South Island. We were heading to the town of Whangarei, which had been our first port of call when we got the car. The drive took us about 4 hours all told and it was a warm day, so when we arrived at the campground we were quite sweaty and ready for another long sleep. We half put the tent up, leaving it to dry out from the battering it had taken down in Mt.Maunganui, whilst we stocked up at the supermarket. We picked up our first piece of chicken since well before we wwoofed in Queenstown and made a lovely stir fry with it. On our previous visit to this campsite, we had been devoured by sandflies or mosquitos in the evening. We were keeping our fingers crossed that the lightning wouldn't strike twice.
Charlotte and James
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