Northland: Oh so familiar

Wednesday 9th November

Charlotte beat me up by a solid hour and by the time I'd found her, she had done all the washing and it was ready to be hung out to dry in what looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. After breakfast, we slapped on the sun lotion and headed out to explore Whangarei. Our campsite was conveniently located at an access point to a walk that followed the banks of the Hatea River, from downtown Whangarei all the way to the Whangarei Falls. We started about 10 minutes from town and headed in the direction of the falls. It was already a hot day, so we were glad for the shade that the rainforest was providing as we walked parallel with the murky waters of the Hatea River. We briefly joined a road, before turning off and heading through forests and pasture. We reached the falls in just over an hour and were very impressed. About 4 jets of water cascaded over the edge 24 metres above us to create a fantastic spectacle. A bridge ran across in front of the falls to give us a perfect view too. Once we'd appreciated the falls from beneath we headed up to the top to get a different view. When we reached the top a couple of Maori teens were hopping from rock to rock right on the edge of the falls but we decided to avoid that excursion, knowing my record with stepping stones. A 24 metre drop would not be favourable. Having seen the top, we followed a path down the opposite side we'd come up and headed back towards Whangarei. We walked almost all the way back to where we'd started near the campsite but took a path that veered off to the side and led up Mt.Parihaka. It was a steep climb up seemingly endless steps and by the time we'd reached the top (or what we thought was the top) we were sweating considerably. It wasn't the top though. It was just a pathway leading to a dead end after we ignored the new set of stairs going downhill. Those stairs didn't go downhill for long though and we were met by yet more ascending stairs. Finally, we made it but we were slightly peeved to see a car park just below us and numerous chubby tourists looking pretty pleased with themselves. We found some shade to sit in and eat our lunch before paying a visit to the nearby lookout. To be fair, it was worth all the sweat and effort. The view across the city and countryside across to the Pacific was fantastic, despite what seemed like a young couple trying to settle an argument (no, it wasn't Charlotte and me!) right in the middle of the platform. Once they'd got over it and moved on, we took a few snaps and headed down a different route to the one we'd come up. The pathway took us to a road which we then followed to a place called the town basin. The basin was where the harbour was and it had been developed to be the “cool” part of town with the visitors centre, restaurants, bars, cafes and arts and crafts stores in abundance. We had a browse of the arts and crafts stores and went in a fudge shop with the hope of getting some form of fudge flavoured ice cream to cool us down.  Despite being a speciality fudge shop, their ice cream selection was particularly unfudgy, so we took a pass and headed off. We left the town basin behind us for the time being and headed in to what is known in New Zealand and Australia as the CBD, or the town centre to you and me. We had a peruse through a couple of used bookshops but only came out with one books. The day was getting on by this point, so we decided to swing by the basin once more and sat down to rest our weary feet, enjoy a beer at one of the bars and sit outside and watch the world go by. They were expensive beers but went down really well on such a hot day. We did well not to go back for a second round. With that, we walked the 10 minutes back up the road to our campsite and finally got a proper rest at about 6. The heat of the day had tired us out good and proper but with getting back late, we weren't sat down for long with showers to get and a huge chicken and veg stir fry to cook up for dinner.

Thursday 10th November

We ended up getting to bed pretty late the night before. We spent a couple of hours chatting to a German man who had just started his travels in New Zealand. We gave him some advice on what to do and where to go and by the time we looked at our watch it was half 11. We were still up fairly early ready to head out and enjoy yet another beautiful Northland day. We slapped on the sun cream and said goodbye to our new German friend. The plan for the day was to drive out to an area nearby called Whangarei Heads to do a walk and enjoy a picnic. We picked up a few final items for the picnic on the way out of town and then drove along a scenic road that went past mangroves, numerous bays and holiday homes. It took us about half an hour, by the time we arrived it was gone 11. The walk was a relatively short hour and a half hike around a coastal headland. For the first part we had to navigate our way around some placid looking cows, although Charlotte didn't think they looked as peaceful as they were. From there we made some steep up and downs until we reached the top of the headland and a small viewing spot that looked out across the azure seas of the Pacific and the white sandy beaches it broke on to. It was a lovely spot, reminiscent of the Mediterranean. We'd worked up a hell of a sweat and a decent hunger, although we still had around 30 minutes left of the walk. We passed by one of the white sandy beaches, resisting the temptation to dip a toe in to the Pacific for the first time (there would be plenty of opportunities for that up in Kerikeri anyway) and followed the pathway back up to the cow infested field. The final stint was all downhill back to the carpark and it was finally time for lunch. We'd gone all out for the picnic. We'd bought our first lump of cheese in almost 3 months in order to make cheese and onion sandwiches. We cooked up some frozen sausage rolls (we'd looked for a pork pie or 2 but they don't seem to exists over here). We even had a blanket to sit down on. We laid it down on a grassy verge overlooking the bay (and some form of refinery in the distance) and tucked in to our feast. By the time we'd finished, we were so full we could hardly move but forced ourselves to just so we could get out the sun and stop the burning. We took shelter in the sweltering car and decided our next move. We'd had enough of sweaty walks, so decided to call it a day and head back to Whangarei. We had thought about going to a garden in the town but we ended up getting a bit distracted. We paid a visit to the iSite, found a pin badge and got directions to a factory that made clocks and other crafts out of ancient Kauri trees. It took a little effort to find it and when we pulled up we weren't completely convinced. It was just a warehouse with a lot of old wood strewn around out the front. The man smoking out the front didn't exactly make it inviting. We went in though and were swiftly followed in by the man who'd been smoking. He told us about the wood used to make all the things inside the warehouse and where they get it from. To be fair it was quite interesting and it didn't seem as uninviting as it had at the start. We were told the trees had been recovered from swamps as they had been flattened by an unknown natural event around 50,000 years ago. Rather than rot or turn to stone in the swamps, like most other wood would, the Kauri stays as it is as it's protected by its gum. He left us to have a look around, which we did. Now, we went in with no intention to buy anything but it quickly became clear to us that we could be swayed. The pressure was taken off us a bit when another couple came in and had a look around. Before we could say “cuckoo” they'd picked one out and were buying it. We didn't notice until after they had gone that it was the one Charlotte and I were most keen on. We cursed our indecision and carried on looking. Eventually, after about an hour, we were sure we'd found one we liked and took the plunge. Rather than lug the clock around with us we opted to get it sent back home to await our arrival. Just before Charlotte put the card in to pay a lightning bolt struck and I remembered that as Top 10 members (that's the campsite company we use most often) we get 10% off all purchases. What a relief it was that I remembered just at the right time, we'd have been incredibly peeved if we'd arrived back at the campsite and it had come then. Anyway, that memory pretty much meant the delivery home was free, so we were pretty chuffed with that. The clock cost a wee bit, but we'd been after a crafty, wooden item to get as a souvenir, so something made from Kauri, a tree we'd enjoyed seeing in the forests so much, seemed appropriate. We headed back to the campsite to take the late afternoon off. It was still hot when we got back, so we sat in our camping chairs and felt the shadows creep up on us as the sun set. We needed a break from rice for the night for dinner, so opted for pasta instead and had it with some frozen veg that we'd forgotten we'd had sitting in the freezer.

Friday 11th November

This will be a nice short day as we didn't really do anything of note. We packed the tent away in the morning ready for one final stop before reaching the promised land of work and money. We briefly got collared by an American over breakfast, who obviously wanted to lead the conversation in the direction of Donald Trump. We humoured him for a short while before splitting when a horde of Spaniards entered the room. After brekkie, we were ready and hit the road. We were following in footsteps we'd taken back in April by driving out to the west coast, through the town of Dargaville and up about 30 minutes to the campsite for the Kauri Coast. We stayed at the same campsite back then and it had stuck in our memory for a couple of reasons. We'd had our first taste of sandflies there and ended up with small itchy welts all over our ankles. It was also the place that I'd fallen from stepping stones into a river which had caused me to lose my phone. We weren't back to pick it up, instead we were there to do a walk we'd missed out on on our previous visit. The weather man told us to expect rain though, so we pencilled it in for the following day. Just incase, I'll explain why the area is called the Kauri Coast. 50 million years ago the north of New Zealand from Cape Reinga, down past Auckland to the Coromandel was covered in humongous Kauri trees. A mixture of disease, disaster and logging had depleted their numbers to 1-3% of what they were. The Kauri Coast is where the majority of the Kauri remain and we had seen them on our previous visit as well as down on the Coromandel Peninsula. We checked in to the campsite and got the tent up, noticing some sandflies drawn to the whiteness of the tent. We weren't getting any nibbles though, which was an improvement. When the tent was up, we got a load of washing done and had lunch. Afterwards, we went for a wander around the campsite and paid a visit to where I'd come a cropper before, I didn't fancy a go this time and we noticed that the rope that I'd trusted was no longer attached from pole to pole. We guessed that other people may have made the same mistake I did. For the rest of the day we read our books on our site, slightly disappointed that it didn't rain, as we could have got the walk done and dusted. When the rain did come, we were already in the kitchen room cooking up our rice, veg and Portuguese chicken for dinner. Full to the brim, we toasted to my Nanna’s 90th birthday with a beer we'd picked up when we were down in New Plymouth. The final hours were spent playing Cribbage, where I was shown a thing or two by Charlotte, who managed to close the overall score gap to 1, or maybe none. We can't actually remember. Dan the weather man told us we were in for a stormy night. We were just hoping for good weather for our steep hike tomorrow.

Saturday 12th November

We weren't in any rush to get up, as we wanted to let the weather pass before heading off for our walk. It just so happened there was a conveniently placed England v Scotland game on television that helped to pass the time. It was 11 by the time we departed the campsite but it was still pretty miserable and drizzling. It was a short drive back to the highway and along before turning left and heading along an unsealed road to the tiny settlement of Aranga Beach. We popped by on our previous visit and had been mesmerised by national speed limit road signs along the beach, this time, we wanted to conquer Maunganui Bluff. It wasn't a long walk but it looked steep and the weather was pretty shoddy. We parked up, secured the car and set off. The first part was fairly easy as the track ran along the bottom of the bluff. After a while, we exited the wooded area we'd been walking through and started along a very narrow, exposed pathway that left very little margin for error. One wrong foot or a rouge gust of wind and we could have easily been sliding down the hill towards the white waters of the Tasman Sea. On our travels it had always amazed us that, no matter the weather, the Tasman Sea was always loud and rough. Whenever we'd been along the Pacific Coast, the ocean always seemed placid and calm. The prevailing winds come from the west across the Tasman, so we put it down to that. We made it passed the exposed, steeps pathways and started climbing up claggy mud slopes before we entered a rainforest. From here the going got tough. It was a steep climb, the pathway was littered with rocks that were wet from the overnight rain which made them treacherous and strong winds had evidently been through the area recently, as there were palm branches strewn across the track. The going up wasn't too bad, it was the coming down we weren't really looking forward to. Eventually, after a few small stream crossings, the pathway levelled out, we passed through a small field of New Zealand flax bushes and then we reached a fence of a farm. We had no choice but to turn left and follow the fence up a constant hill. The going was made slightly rougher by having to dodge numerous cow pats along the way. All the cows seemed to be beyond the fence we were walking along but we guessed a couple had made an escape for them to be leaving their trace our side. After about half a mile of cow pats, we found the 3 or 4 culprits and they just stared at us as cows do as we took another left and headed up to the summit of Maunganui Bluff. We'd ascended 459 meters in an hour and a half, which seemed slow but the damp rocks slowed us down considerably. There wasn't a lot to see at the summit apart from the grey and white Tasman Sea crashing on Northland’s endless sandy beaches and farmers fields. The low cloud made everything look grim and dull, so we had a quick snack and headed back down the way we'd come up. We dodged the cows and their muck yet again before setting of down the slippery pathway. Again, it was slow going but there were plenty of solid trees dotted along the pathway that we used to keep our balance. We made it down in the same time it had taken us to get up, so we were pretty pleased with our attempt. It was also good to be back in one piece. The narrow, cliff top pathway was being whipped by winds on our way back but it wasn't too bad. When we got back to the warmth of the car, we tucked in to a huge late lunch that we'd brought with us. The leftover sausage rolls disappeared pretty quickly, as well as some peanut butter rolls and crisps (too many carbs). We had a quick look at our map but found there weren't anymore walks left to do in the area, that we hadn't already done at least. We returned  to the campsite and freshened up, ready for our final night in the tent. On our drive along the unsealed road from Aranga Beach we were stopped in our tracks by a large group of wild turkeys parading across the road. If we'd had a shot gun handy, we would have been tucking in to turkey for dinner for the foreseeable future but it's not something we'd considered picking up for our travels. We had our knives we'd made but they were big turkeys,so they could probably put up a fight and could probably run faster than we could. We played a bit of Cribbage and read some books in an attempt to kill time before dinner. After a massive late lunch, we weren't exactly hungry. When we did eventually eat, we cooked up some beans and pasta, adding a little bit of cheese to spice things up for a change. It seemed like a fitting dinner to end our camping days in New Zealand. We still had a lot to do and see in the country though. It have felt like the end of an era in some ways but we still had lots to be excited about. Just before we got into the tent we went for a wander down to a bridge on the campsite. We'd been told that underneath the bridge were glowworms. It was pitch black but through the gloom we could just about make out the faint lights of the glowworms, similar to the ones we'd seen at the Waitomo caves just on a smaller scale.

Sunday 13th November

We fell asleep to the sounds of a Morepork amongst the trees beyond the tent. A Morepork is an owl native to New Zealand and got its name because it's call makes it sound like it's saying “morepork”. We were awake early but still managed to flitter away an hour or so sitting in the tent before we bothered to get up. Unfortunately, overnight drizzle had made the tent wet and, as was almost tradition, the tent would have to be out away wet. We still left it for after brekkie but that made no difference. The road we were driving we'd already been along so we didn't have to make any stops as we'd seen it all. We did stop at Tāne Mahuta, the Lord of the Forest for one more peek though. It's the biggest Kauri Tree in existence and it was just as incredible second time round. It was only a flying visit though and from there we drove straight through to Kerikeri and Ake Ake vineyard, that we'd be working in for the next 8 weeks. We were met by Aynsley, John and their son Luca and then shown to where we would be living for the duration of our stay. It was a house bus set next to the bottling shed. We'd seen and viewed it on a previous visit, so we knew what we were getting ourselves in for. It was bigger than we remembered, which was probably a positive. We were left  to settle in and had no work for the day, so after a quick lunch, we swung by the supermarket to fill our cupboards and fridge. We spent $124, which we were pretty pleased with. The rest of the day was spent settling in to the house bus and getting everything in order. John popped his head in the door whilst we were having a cup of tea (we'd had horrendous teabags whilst camping and had treated ourselves to a box of PG tips when we'd gone to the supermarket earlier, they tasted so much better!), rattled off a few things, told us we'd start around 9 the following day and then asked us what wine we prefer. We told him and he was back in 5 minutes with a couple of bottles for us to have, which was very nice. We spent some time playing a new card game we'd taught ourselves called Cricket, which pretty much follows the same premise as the game of cricket, with wickets, run outs and 6’s and lasts for quite a while. The wine was cracked open over our pizza dinner (wine snobs would scoff at our choice of accompanying food) and was really nice, though we only had a glass each as we didn't want to seem like alcoholics and finish them both in one evening. By the time we were done it was pretty much time for bed. We took in the supermoon rising above the trees on our final visit to the outside toilet before settling down to the first night of many in the undoubtedly bug infested house bus. We weren't looking forward to how many bites we'd end up with come the 8 weeks but we were happy to be on the verge of some income.

James and Charlotte