Northland Continued

Hey folks!
So we are back in Poomerston North for a night and coincidentally have internet access so here goes! The rest of Northland was absolutely fantastic! The weather was great, and I have actually transitioned into the life of a gypsy living out of their van. I only have the occasional freak-out now.
Ok, so where did I leave off... Oh yeah, we headed from the Bay of Islands to the Karikari peninsula. This was one of our favourite places because the beaches were so pristine and there wasn't hardly anyone there.

We kept heading north for Cape Reinga. On the west coast there is 90 mile beach, and it is actually a highway as well as a beach, but we didn't drive on it. We didn't want Esther to be swept away to sea when the tides came in :) 

Cape Reinga was a magical place. You could see the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meeting and creating tumultous water out into the ocean. The Maori believe that this is where the departed souls of the dead leap from and are carried away to Hawaiki (their ancestral homeland).

We stayed at Tapotupotu Bay that night and enjoyed the scenery. The next morning it was Jared's birthday, so I got up before him for the first time this trip and made him breakfast :) On the way south we headed to the Te Paki Sand Dunes, where you can go sand-boarding. Well we thought we would ride down the dunes in our black plastic bins. This did not work, we just sunk into the sand :) In the end it was just as well because the sand was so hot you couldn't really climb them any way. From there we made it to Maitai Bay, which is on the Karikari peninsula. We liked it so much we decided to go back.

We stayed there for a couple of days and then headed further south. We drove through the Waipoua Forest on our way. Here we stopped to see the Kauri giants. These are some immense trees. The first one we saw was Tane Mahuta- "The Lord of the Forest." This tree is 50 m tall and has a trunk girth of 16 m.

We then took a few more walks to see more of the Kauri trees. There are a ton of them in this forest because they were protected. Lots of Kauri trees went for timber, though and hence why most of the Kauri forests have been destroyed. 

We stayed in Dargaville for the night and in the morning headed south. Made it through Auckland uneventfully so that was good. We stopped at a road sign that said "The Three Sisters", so obviously I wanted to stop! It turned out to be this really cool place on the coast with a bunch of stone pillars, sea arches and rock formations right on the coast. It was very cool. And we were lucky because it was low tide when we drove by and that is the only time you can see it. 

The game plan now is to drive south to Wellington, take the ferry across and start exploring the South Island.   On our way down we are staying with some friends and catching up.

See you later

Northland

Hey everyone,

So after Kawhia we headed up north of Auckland, but not before doing a very important thing first.....
Driving around Auckland is a bit like driving around Calgary so kudos to Jared for navigating the labyrinth so I could see the "Outrageous Fortune" house in West Auckland. This was the house the West's lived in on the show. Pretty sure most of you have no idea what I'm talking about but it's a kiwi sitcom Jocy got me into when she was in New Zealand. It is just a normal residential house now, so we had to walk by all nonchalantly and pretend we were reading the bus stop schedule while I snapped some pics. I thought I had been so sneaky until I got looking at the pictures and realized the woman in the driveway was looking right at me as I snapped the picture! Awkward! I'm a terrible paparazzi.

Jared thought I was completely insane that I was so excited. From there we made a bee-line out of Auckland. We stopped in a town called Warkworth. We were only planning on getting groceries and moving on, but we ended up staying on at a Holiday Park in Marvin's Bay. It is only 1 hr from Auckland and it's peak tourist/holiday season here so the camp ground was packed. That evening we went fishing out on Mullet Point, a 15 min walk from the camp site. Jared caught his first fish on his surf-casting rod, a snapper.

The next morning we drove up the point to Goat Island Marine Reserve. We bought some snorkel gear and were super excited to play with our new toys! Of course, we couldn't really take any pictures of the actual snorkelling but I promise it was cool :) We saw tons snapper, and a bunch of other fishes. Jared saw a stingray but he was too quick for me. Some of the snapper were absolutely enormous, they didn't even look like snapper any more.

From there we headed to Whangarei. We stopped at the i-site to figure out what we should do while we're up here. We decided to stay at a DOC (Department of Conservation) camp site that night and head for Russell in the morning.

The next morning we were in Russell. It is such a nice place, right in the Bay of Islands but still very quiet. In the late 1800's it used to be a whaling town and was called the "Hell-hole of the Pacific" because everyone was either a sailor, whaler or a prostitute, and we all know how law-abiding those folks were.

Looking out from the town of Russell into the Bay of Islands

In the afternoon we took a boat tour out to "Hole in the Rock" at Cape Brett. This gave us some great views of the Bay and we even saw some dolphins. We were a little spoiled in Kawhia because there were way more people this time and we only saw dolphins for about 5 minutes. 

The Hole in the Rock

The cruise was lovely, we even drove the boat through the hole in the rock. Real cool. They zipped us over to Otehei Bay, and let us hang out on shore for a bit. Jared and I went snorkelling. I saw a bunch of oysters. Jared saw fish but he is braver and actually dives down when snorkelling. I'm getting there. Baby steps. 

Otehei Bay

Pohutakawa trees in the background

They drove us back to Russell and the tour was over. Now we are hanging out in Paihia. We took Esther (our van) on a ferry across the bay. We lucked out and the place has free wi-fi so we are bloggin like mad. 

Hopefully there will be more chances to blog in the not so distant future. Hope everyone is doing well at home, miss you heaps

Kawhia Fishing Trip - Jan 6th

We arrived in Kawhia around 6 pm the night before the trip. Kawhia is an isolated town on the coast west of Hamilton.  Much to Roberta's disgust, we had to get up at 6 am to be at the wharf in time to catch the charter boat. There was 13 of us from the vet clinic on the charter boat. It was a nice sunny day and not too windy, but the waves were still rolling pretty good. Some of our crew spent most of the day lying on the deck and trying not to spew. It was too bad because it was quite an awesome day

When we got out to our first spot to fish, we were immediately welcomed by quite a large pod of dolphins!!! What a great way to start off the day. They swam around the boat for a bit and then went on there way although they did return a couple of times.

Baby dolphin in between two adults- highlight of Roberta's day

Roberta always makes fun when I'm videoing things and saying what they are, so she decided to mock me a bit at the end of the video. Man she is funny.



We started jigging at around 40 meters and I brought up the first fish of the day within a couple of minutes, a kahawai.

Within no time the rest of the crew started to pull up some fish. Mostly kahawai but also some baby school sharks with the odd snapper as well. After about half an hour at this spot I noticed a large blue fish a few meters under the water that didn't look like a dolphin. It was a blue shark!! It was about 5 feet in length. It started biting at the fish we were catching and at our bait. It seemed within minutes there was about 4 more sharks and they soon became a nuisance. We started to hook them left and right. Most times ended with them breaking our lines and taking all our lures. We were able to bring some in though and brought them onto the boat to be untangled since they really seemed to roll when they were caught getting line wrapped all around them.

After untangling a few lines and losing a bunch of tackle, the skipper decided it was time for us to move since the sharks were not going to move anytime soon. We pulled up the anchor and moved to a second spot.

At this spot, we continued to catch kahawai along with some gurnets. They were quite a cool looking fish with colorful front fins and were great eating.

A Gurnet

Rex with a Snapper

We also started to catch some mackerel which we cut up and used as bait as snapper often like them. We started catching fish but the sharks moved in again circling the boat for bait and fish we caught. After going through another load of tackle we moved once again and once again at the third spot the sharks showed up a half an hour later. They must have just been following the boat.

Small School Shark

While moving from the third to the fourth spot, the skipper noticed some tuna in the water. We put on some squid like tackle and started trolling for tuna with the drag set really light so we could tell when we caught one. It was quite exciting. Within minutes one of the rods started to zing. After a 5 minute fight, Trevor was able to get around a 3 kg tuna in the boat. Next up was Adam and I. We both caught one at the same time. We had to maneuver under each other quite a few times. Adam was able to bring his in quicker than I could. After about a 15 minute fight, my arms were starting to burn a bit but I had gotten the fish right close to the boat. Rex went to net the fish and it broke right through the net and dove down hard below the boat. I was able to get the rod through the net without losing the fish. While the guys fixed the net, I brought the tuna back in and we finally got it aboard. It was about a 10 kg tuna!! The biggest the skipper had seen on the boat of this kind of tuna.

Tuna

Everyone got a turn and everyone caught one. Roberta's first one was only about 1 kg, but she had quite the fight with the second one.

After about 15 mins of fighting, she had finally got the fish close to the boat and felt no more fight on the line. Just then we saw the biggest shark of the day surface right near the boat. When Roberta brought the fish into the boat it had been bitten in half by the shark!

It was an awesome day, full of action.  I managed to catch at least one of each of every species of fish brought onto the boat which included school shark, spotted dogfish, blue shark, kahawai, snapper, gurnet, mackerel, and tuna. Roberta caught quite a few fish herself even though the waves made her a bit queazy at times. We headed into shore at around 3:30 pm and had a load of fish with us. Since we didn't have a freezer to put the fish into, we just took one of each of the smaller fish we caught for a taste.

Mullet

It was an exciting day to say the least. Looking forward to more as our journey continues!!! Until next time...

The Coromandel Peninsula

Hey all,

coming at you from the other side of the earth. We are now living without a permanent address for the first time in our lives. Our home is on wheels.

We spent our New Year’s at Waihi beach that is located at the base of the Coromandel peninsula. We stayed at Alex’s parent's bach that was located right on the ocean. For those who don't remember Alex was one of the people we lived with in Palmerston North.

 Our View

The doors to our room opened up to a view of the ocean which was amazing. We spent a couple of days boogie boarding and relaxing at the beach. We read lots, lounged around and had an all-round good time. Alex's family was great to visit with and we shared many stories. The day we left was Alex's grandfather's 92nd birthday and they had given him an Ipad Mini which he was totally stoked about!!! It was so awesome to see. My parents now do not have any excuses to learn about new technology. Haha


After hanging at the cabin, we headed north up the east side of the Coromandel peninsula. This is cottage country for the Aucklanders and Hamiltonians. We stopped for a hike to see some 600 year old kauri trees along the way. They mostly got logged out back in the day, but there are still a few remaining here and there.

Close to the Kauri walk there was a swimming hole that we stopped at. Some guys were diving off the top of the waterfall. I was thinking of pretending the picture was me, but thought it wouldn't fool you.

The road went right along the coast and the beautiful red blooming Pohutakawa trees made the scenery picturesque.

Unfortunately, Roberta started to get the flu and was not feeling at the top of her game. We spent one night in Waikawau Bay. The beach there was quite nice.

The next day we moved on to Stony Bay which was as far as the road went on the east side. Our campsite there was the best yet being right on the ocean. While Roberta spent the day in bed not feeling so well, I headed out for a hike and tried some beach casting off the rocks to see if I could catch a fish. The track to the fishing spot was quite grown in, but had some spectacular views of the coast. The last part of the track I was basically absailing down to the rocks down a steep hill. There were two other kiwi's fishing there and although I didn't catch any fish, I got some good fishing tips about surf- casting.

The next day Roberta was feeling a bit better, so we headed back down the peninsula to a place called Hot Water Beach. At low tide, you can dig a hole in the sand and if you are in the right area it will fill with hot water from underground springs. You actually had to be careful and not scold yourself in some areas the water was so hot. We spent a good 3 hours soaking in our self made hot water pools and chatting with some Kiwis.

The next day we headed to a place known as Cathedral Cove. It was only a short 10 km drive from hot water beach. It was an hour walk along the coast and through the bush to the actual cove. There were many side tracks along the way going into different bays and small beaches. The whole area was a marine reserve and we heard that the snorkelling was quite good at some spots, but we didn't have the gear and Roberta wasn't feeling a 100% yet, so we didn't rent any. The cove itself was beautiful. The waves were really rolling in that day and the "cathedral" was quite amazing.

 The "Cathedral"

 Roberta Walking Through

 Close up of Pohutakawa flowers

After hanging out at the cove for a bit, we made the walk back to the van and headed west. We had the Taumarunui Vet Clinic fishing trip in Kawhia the next day which was around a 3 hour drive. I'll tell you about it in the next blog.