We are sailing!

Sat 28 March Warm and sunny 22C Drove nowhere

Time for another day on the water and this time hopefully with sail power. Being in the Bay of Islands, the main things to do are all associated with the sea. It is possible to practice almost any water associated sports that you can think of here, and several you might never have considered. Since para-sailing, jet-boating and banana boats didn't appeal to us, going out for a day on a sailing yacht sounded good to us.

We met Mike and his boat Gungha II at the pier on Paihai just before 10, we also met Will, a Bristol backpacker who was also coming out on the boat. We then set off across the bay to Russell to pick up two German passengers, Martin and Johanna. In addition to our captain Mike, we had Jean-Luc on board as crew.

As the brief was very light, we set out using the motor to head out in the bay. We did manage to get the sails up briefly as we headed further out, but we had to use the motor a fair bit. We anchored in a small bay on one of the islands and climbed into the tender to land on the island. Martin and Johanna, took the two kayaks we had with us onto the island too. Jean-Luc then took us for a walk on the island explaining that there was a programme of planting going on to provide more native plants so that the wildlife can return. The view from the hill at the top was spectacular, and all of the bay was laid out in front of us..

After scrambling back down to the bay, we explored the pretty beach for a while. Eventually, everyone swam back to the yacht except Martin, me and Jean-Luc. I paddled back to the yacht on one of the kayaks, catching up with swimmers en route. Back on the yacht, we were handed wet-suits, masks, fins and snorkels and rapidly jumped back into the water. Almost under the boat was a large Ray whiles closer to shore there were several smaller fish and a small cave to explore. After all this exercise, lunch was provided by the captain and crew whilst we dried out in the sun.

Up with the anchor, up with sails and we set out into the bay again to try and sail again, this time with more success. We then spent a very pleasant and relaxing afternoon sailing on the bay. There was plenty of bird life to see too, and for the first time we saw lots of blue penguins and shearwaters.

Finally back at Paihai, we watched as two boats came in and landed large Marlin, of weighing 107kg and the other 93kg. They were an impressive sight, but it is a bit sad to see such magnificent fish laid on the wharf.

Dinner was 'al fresco' at a pub before returning to our motel room at the Abel Tasman.

Bay of Islands, sailing and not diving

Friday 27 March Sunny and warm 22C drove 124km

We had to leave paradise today. It was very tempting to stay another night in Coopers Beach, but we needed to move on. With the car packed, we headed south again on the SH10. We weren't planning going far, just down to the Bay of Islands.

The journey down to Whangaroa was familiar, but from then it was new territory again. The road was quite busy and was quite undulating. The views, particularly to the west, were very big. We started to pass through vast orchards of citrus fruit, apples, kiwis and passionfruit and shortly afterwards we dropped down into Kerikeri. This is a busy market town that has some of the oldest buildings in New Zealand in it. Down by the creek is a Stone House, somewhat unusual in NZ and next door a wooden mission house. Both were built by the earliest settlers. It was quite quiet at the wharf and very warm.

We had briefly thought about staying in Kerikeri, but decided to carry on down to Paihai and Russell to check out accommodation there. We had read that Paihai was rather touristy, so it was with some relief that we found the place quite quiet with plenty of good motels right on the sea front. We carried on to Opua and were lucky enough to drive straight onto the ferry across to Russell. Russell is a pretty town crammed into a small bay directly across from Paihai. We drove around and couldn't find any suitable rooms, so we headed back to Paihai and rapidly moved into the Abel Tasman motel located on the sea front.

As usual, we got a good deal with a kitchen, dining and lounge area with a separate bedroom with a a balcony and view looking out into the Bay of Islands. Additionally, we got free high speed wifi internet access.

Walking into town just 250 steps away along the sea front allowed us to look at some of the vessels plying the water here. Many of the them quite large and fast promising views of dolphins and trips to the 'Hole in the Rock', a sea arch. None of this appealled to us, so we booked to go out on a yacht all day tomorrow, then I tried, unsuccessfully, to arrange a dive on the Rainbow Warrior. The only chance to dive would have been Monday and in the end, a decision had to be made, Rainbow Warrior or Poor Knights Islands another day. Disappointing, but I've dived wrecks before whereas the islands are reckoned to be one the top ten dive sites in the world! Back at the motel, I managed to book two dives to the islands from Tutukawa on Tuesday. Fingers crossed for good weather!

The remainder of the day was spent enjoying our balcony and view from the motel.

Wine, sand and fish

Thursday 26 Mar Warm and sunny 22C drove 100km

After an excellent nights sleep, soothed by the sound of the waves gently breaking on the sandy beach just outside our motel room, we had a leisurely start to the day. OK, I know that sounds sickenly nice, but it really was, and doubtless still is, a great place to stay.

Down at Manganui harbour, the Tourist Information office was promising wifi internet access and , "Skype here now"! We were sold a card with 40 minutes access to wifi by the very hassled person in the office. There were some comfortable chairs to sit in and we got logged on quickly. What the person in the office hadn't said was that we couldn't log off once we'd logged on, so we wasted quite a lot of our 40 minutes. We had been hoping to hear that we could get some upgrades to premium economy class on our flight from Auckland to Hong Kong or from Hong Kong to London, it wasn't to be though.

The Karikari peninsular just to the west of Manganui, is a pretty rural place, but has lots of nice beaches and a winery on it. We first drove out to Matai bay at the northern end of the peninsular where sand dunes protected a pretty beach and then headed to the Karikari Estate winery. This winery is the most northerly in New Zealand and looks like it is still being planted. The winery covers more than 100 acres is planted with 8 different varieties of grape. Situated in a large 'mock' spanish hacienda style building on a hillside, it is surrounded by fields of vines on the northern facing slopes. It is all part of Carrington Farms, a leisure, golf and wine drinking venture.

A wine tasting tray of 5 wines set us back $NZ12, but there was enough wine for both of to try. We tried a '08 Cabinet Sauvignon first, after a while we could taste passionfruit in the wine, but struggled with the advertised taste of 'green peas'. Second was a '07 Chardonnay, made with grapes from Nelson in the South Island. This was quite smooth, but with a slightly peppery finish. Third up was a '06 Syrah which we initially thought smelled of bonfires, but later changed to caramel. It tasted of berries too. We next tried a '05 Merlot/Cabinet/Malbec which had a sort of creosote smell, but was plummy with a dry finish and finally a '05 Cabinet/Merlot/Franc which was smooth, but didn't really taste of anything. My favourite was the Syrah, whilst Lynn whent for the Sauvignon. Later we will try a bottle of '08 Chardonnay/Viognier that we have lurking in our fridge.

We headed into what was described as the commercial heart of Whatuwhiwhi. You can attempt to pronounce that 'what a wee wee', but it is apparently Fatoo-fee-fee. The commercial heart was fairly compact and the only food outlet sold us some sandwiches to take down to the beach at Puwheke. The drive there took us on a dirt road that meandered around in the scrubby bush, round two lagoons, and finally dumped us on a near deserted beach. In fact, shortly after we arrived, it was deserted apart from us. We had lunch on the beach and had a swim before anyone else arrived. The sandy beach stretched for miles, a very beautiful and peaceful place.

We returned to our wonderful beachfront motel (have you got the idea that I really like this place yet?) for a spot more sunbathing and relaxing.

Dinner in Manganui seemed like a good option again, but this time the Manganui 'Fish Shop' was fairly empty, so it would be fish and chips for dinner again. The fish shop serves fresh and smoked fish straight from the boats that come into the quay at Manganui, but also also serves fish and chips in a restaurant on decking over the water. Nothing flash here though, order your fish or whatever seafood they have, grab a beer from the bar and sit down at a bench until your freshly cooked meal arrives wrapped in paper at your table. This is slightly upmarket from the Fresh and Tasty of last night; it gives you plastic knives and forks to eat with rather than fingers. Delicious!

Cows, Cape Reinga and the motorcycles

Wednesday 25 March. Sunny all day 24C Drove 336km

I hadn't appreciated that I was travelling with a 'Cow Spotter'. I had no idea that there were so many different varieties of cow on the planet. Now I know, because someone in the car can spot a Herefordshire or a Holstein at a 100 paces. I admit that there are lots of different coloured cows here, I just thought they had interbred, but no, they are all different. Jersey and Guernsey cows are next to Friesians, Aberdeen Angus and Belgian Blues, there are probably Limousins and Charlois cattle too. I'm starting to bone up on sheep and pig varieties now in order to keep ahead of the game.

Up early and out of the motel by 0830. After refuelling, we set of up to the northern end of North Island. The main road, now named the SH1F, for reasons I cannot explain (luckily they found no reason to use the suffix T), heads north from Kaitaia for 110km where it finally stops at Cape Reinga. Most of the road has a good surface, but last 18 is marked as gravel on the map. Most of the road up to Waitiki Landing is undulating, passing through miles of farmland, mainly with cows and sheep on with a few fruit farms as well. We did see a herd of deer on one farm and a 'flock' of emu on another. There are odd glimpses of the huge dunes to the west, and Houhora harbour, then Parengarenga harbour to the east, as we head north. One spit at Parengarenga is entirely silica and looks blindingly white from a distance.

Just beyond Waitiki Landing, the road ran out and we headed up the gravel. I had read that the tour buses drive up to the Cape along 90 mile beach and then join this gravel road for the last 18 km, but we saw no-one as we headed north. Suddenly, we came to roadworks, they are trying to surface the road all the way up. Apart from one short stretch, where the grading machine had just ripped up the gravel, the surface was smooth for mud and gravel. After 11 km of gravel, the road was surfaced again, what bliss!


As we arrived at the carpark at Cape Reinga, a small tour bus was just heading off, this left only 4 or 5 cars and a motorbike! The area is sacred to the Maori as this is where the spirits of the dead climb down the roots of an old pohutukawa tree and leave the island to return to their spritual homeland of Hawaiiki. In respect of this, no food or drink are to be consumed here. The path down to the lighthouse at the cape, has boards explaining the significance of the area to the Maori. There were very few people down at the lighthouse and the views out to the Three Kings Islands 60km north. Although Cape Reinga is not the most northerly point of mainland New Zealand, it is the most northerly accessible point. Below the lighthouse, the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet and the crashing of waves and chaotic swirling waters clearly show the two coming together.

Back up in the carpark, things were hotting up. Quite a few more cars had arrived along with about 30 motorbikes, we guessed it was a club out for a day trip. If we were correct, then it was a very big club. As we headed back down the road we passed loads more bikes heading north, maybe even hundred of bikes. The coaches had started to put in an appearance too, we congratulated ourselves on our excellent timing before driving as quickly as possible back 100km down the road.

At the foot of the peninsular at Awahui, we turned east along the north coast. A stop was made at Taipa for lunch at a motel, it looked quite nice but one of the staff serving lunch was particularly scary! Cable Bay, Coopers Beach and Manganui were only a few kilometres beyond Taipa and we started the hunt for accommodation. We found a nice spot, but the sign on the door said, "Back in an hour". It was difficult to know exactly when the might be, could be 5 minutes, could be 55! We headed 30km down the coast to Whangaroa, a small harbour nestled in amongst headlands and mangrove swamps. A very pretty little place, but no-where we fancied staying or eating, so back to Manganui again.

This time the owner of the San Marina was in. His reason for his earlier absence was easily explained, he had seen a fish jumping out in the bay, and suddenly got the urge to go fishing. He had popped out in his kayak with a rod and come back with a 12lb Snapper. The motel was right on the beach, the expression here is, "Absolute Beachfront", and a delightfully peaceful spot. It is really in Coopers Beach, but is hidden down behind a headland, in amongst some beautiful houses. The only sound here is the sea.

The beach beckoned, and after wandering just a few yards from our bedroom, we were on the beach. The sea was a little cool, but swimming was good anyway. Back to the patio ourside our room to sunbathe, dry off and look at a fabulous view.

Later, we drove back into Manganui, all of 2 minutes for dinner. Manganui is a very pretty fishing village lined with historic buildings. It is most famous these days for its Fish Shop and restaurant, people come from miles to eat there. It was busy, so we headed a couple hundred metres up the road to the Fresh and Tasty fish and chip take-away. The food here is equally good, very lightly battered harbour fresh fish and chips served in paper. Our cheapest dinner so far, $NZ 11. Just around the corner was the historic Manganui Hotel, where we downed a couple of beers.

Kauri forests and the West Coast

Tuesday 24 Mar Fine, sun and cloud 21C Drove 297km

Today, we spotted the German 1st Mechanised Tourist Brigade. The convoy was proceeding down the road in near identical motorcaravan emblazoned with their names on a sticker on rear of each van. 'Marlene und Helmut' and then 'Gisela and Eric' followed by a further 4 more. We have met a lot of tourists whilst we have been driving around, we are a mixed bunch. Apparently, Australians make up 40% of the tourists in NZ and we have met quite a few, they are very chatty as are the New Zealanders we've spoken to. The British, and there are lots of them, are sometime chatty too. We've seen a few Americans, lots of Dutch and now the Germans too.

After being woken by a lorry, we got up and left Warkworth quite early. The temperature in the morning was only about 9C.

Back on the SH1 we headed north into, appropriately, Northlands. Stopping briefly at Waiwhui to take a photo of an exotic cafe we continued to Wellsford and then Brynderwyn, which sounds rather Welsh to me. Here, we turned off onto the SH12 toward Dargaville. The road passed through miles of farmland, with sheep, cattle and maize in abundance. Once through Ruawai, the road follows the large Wairoa River up to Dargaville. From this small town, we headed north with the Tutamoe Range to our right.

After Kaihu, we turned off to visit the Trounson Kauri Park. The park is well laid out and has its own campsite attached. The walkway through the Kauri grove is well signed and informative. The grove, saved by a man called Trounson in the 1920s, is full of mature and young Kauri. After the excitement of seeing a Siamese tree the other day, we say lots more today, indeed we saw at least one quadruplet. The sheer scale of these trees has to be seen to be believed, they are very difficult to photograph.

After leaving Trounson and following another gravel road for 10km, we rejoined the main road and entered the Waipoua Forest. This forest is regenerating and covers thousands of hecares of hilly and mountainous countryside. Well inside the forest on a winding road, we came to the Tane Mahuta giant kauri tree. This tree named 'God of the Forest is 1200 years old and rises 18 metres before its first branches. The branches are covered in epiphygtes. After walking back to the car, we stopped for a 'toastie' at the mobile cafe parked in the carpark.

From here the road carried on to the coast at Omapere and Opononi on the southern side of Hokianga estuary and harbour. On the northern shore are giant sand dunes. We followed the coast along to the small ferry port of Rawene, a delightful little place. Having parked the car in the ferry queue, we wandered down the street to cafe overlooking the water to have a drink. Sitting on their overwater verandah, we could watch out for the ferry coming back across the harbour.

The ferry only takes 15 minutes and coasts NZ$ 14 per car and took us to the northern terminal at Kohukohu. We had considered stopping here, but the road was being ripped up and it didn't look too good!. After skirting the Herekino forest, we reached the coast again near Ahipara at the southern end of 90 mile beach. Not far from there we came to Kaitaia, quite a large town. We tried two motels before we found one with internet access. Not only did it have wifi access it was free too.

Later, we drove into town and found the choice of eating places to be very sparce indeed. Luckily, we saw a placard pointing us down a side street to the 'Bushman's Hut' an excellent steak house. It is highly recommended.

Thames to Warkworth and a beer tasting

Monday 23 Mar Sunny and warm 21C Drove 270km

After loading the car, we headed south out of Whitianga to Coroglen where we turned off onto the road to Tapu. Tapu is on the western coast of the Coromandel peninsular, so this was yet another crossing of the Coromandel range, and of course, it was on gravel. The road is 28km long and the gravel in very good condition and we made rapid progress up into the mountains. Shortly after crossing the saddle, we found a footpath to the 'Square Kauri'. The path, consisting of 187 steps (the Rough Guide says 178), is very steep and takes about 10 minutes of puffing and panting. The tree at the top is stunning. It is reckoned to be 1200 years old and is 41 metres tall and the girth is 9 metres. It is reckoned that the Kauri cutters left the tree because of its unusual shape.

On down to Tapu and surfaced roads again. The SH25, still part of the Pacific Highway, follows the coast of the Firth of Thames and is very scenic. Thames is a the largest town on the Coromandel and marked our exit from the peninsular. Just after Thames we crossed the Waihou river on the Orongo single-lane bridge some 470 metres long. Much of the road from here was through flat farmland and wetlands. At Waitakaruru, we turned north along the coast along the western side of the Firth of Thames. After stopping briefly at the Miranda bird-watching centre, we continued on with the sea one side and the Hunua range to the other.

The road continued on to Clevedon, where we stopped for lunch at the local deli. Once through Maraetai, we started to get into the suburbs of Auckland. After going though Howick, we were finally at the northern end of the Pacific Coast Highway, a road that we had followed all the way from Napier.

Once in Auckland, we joined the SH1 again, a motorway at this stage, right into the middle of the city before crossing the Auckland Harbour Bridge to the north. We stayed on the motorway until it turned into a toll road and left to drive into Orewa. Here, at the Tourist Information Office, we managed to book a tour to Tiritiri Matanga Island for the following week. With that job done, we continued on north to the small town of Warkworth.

Warkworth is a pretty town on the banks of the creek leading out to Mahurangi Harbour. The choices of accommodation weren't great and we were still trying to find the elusive internet access we wanted. The Central Motel was a little dated but was clean and well priced. They did claim to have wifi access, but we never managed to connect to it. Although our room was next to the main road, it was quiet all night, but in the morning, one of the other guests was a road-working lorry driver and he started his lorry at 7 in the morning!

We ate pizza in a small Italian take-away almost next door to the hotel and then walked on into town. Down a small alleyway, we found a Tapas Bar called Tahi. I can't report on the quality of the food here, but I can say that the owner is a beer expert! We were the only customers and got talking to the owner, a Kiwi, who was married to a German. He had lived and worked in UK for several years in pubs and bars, and his knowledge of English beers was huge. Unsuprisingly, he was also an expert on New Zealand beers, especially real-ale and micro-breweries. His other speciality was German beers, his wife was from Bavaria!

We tried several beers, no spitting here! I tried a malty Harrington Razor back first, very toasty. Lynn had a Mata Manuka beer, brewed with honey. The owner then gave us a glass each of Croucher Bohemian Pilsner which had delicious light fruity flavours. Next up for Lynn was a Mata Artesian beer, quite light, but still 5%abv. I had an Emmerson's Bookbinder, a new world beer that smelt of peaches and even slightly tasted of them, it was delicious. If you are ever in Warkworth, hunt this place out. I'm pretty certain that the food will be good too.

The 'Scuba Doo'

Sunday 22 Mar Mainly sunny and warm 21C Drove nowhere

After collecting some vital supplies from the bakery, mainly sandwiches, I headed into town to the Dive HQ, a sports shop in town. I quickly got sorted out with some diving gear and then strolled down to the Marina to help load the boat, the 'Scuba Doo'. I met the other divers as we walked down, Janice and Ash and their 5 month old son Amani from the USA, Ellie and Shane from Thames and Phil from Auckland.

We headed out of the the harbour and followed the coast round to Cathedral Cove before heading out to Mahurangi Island. We had a brief, but abortive effort to dive on the eastern side of the island, but the swell was too great, especially as all the other divers were novices. We motored around to the sheltered western side and Ellie and Shane jumped in first with me and Alex, from the dive shop, in shortly afterwards. As we were outside the marine reserve, Alex ws determine to find some decent crayfish and rapidly disappeared into the kelp hunting. I went fish watching with forays deep into the kelp to look for crayfish too. We found none that were large enough to catch, so after 35 minutes headed back to the boat. I enjoyed the dive as I hadn't dived for nearly 30 months and needed to remind myself of the basics.

We sat on the boat and ate lunch and drank coffee before we headed across to the mainland and Gemstone Bay. Here, we were back in the marine reserve, so no crayfish hunting this time. I dived with Ash this time, he was somewhat nervous as he hadn't dived for nearly a year. His bouyancy control wasn't good and consequently was hoovering air whilst he tried to sort himself out. Meanwhile, immediately we entered the water we were surrounded by Snapper and Blue Cod, some of the Snapper were huge. They were totally unafraid of the divers and followed us around all the time. I had heard that they do what their names says, and snap at fingers sometime. I kept my fingers well clear, but did come face-to-face with several large fish! We also saw Gurnards and Red Moki. Best of all, I found several crayfish, one male was enormous and quite agressive. Fortunately, crayfish don't have pincers, so are largely harmless. With Ash on reserve and me with still 120 Bar left we returned to the boat after 38 minutes.

At the end of the dive, we headed back to Whitianga where we arrived at around 4. The day served to remind me that I love diving and messing around on boats.