Tokerau Beach

 

Yes, we're finally back on the road! We left Fairway Bay Marina in December and spent Christmas with family in Taranaki. Then after a brief spell at Bell Block, near New Plymouth, and a quick trip down to Wanganui, we headed north. 

We had a great stay with friends at Ruakaka, and then moved on to spend some time in Kerikeri with family. Next stop was Tokerau Beach ... a beautiful spot up on the Karikari Peninsula. We stayed in an NZMCA Park which was about a five-minute walk from the beach.

Looking south down the beach. Over the bay, way in the distance, is Coopers Beach.

 Tokerau Beach is a really long beach looking out into Doubtless Bay — this photo is taken with the tide out. The beach seems very flat, and when the tide's in, the water is right up close to the dunes. There's not a lot of soft sand like you'd find at the top of many beaches.

We were at Tokerau Beach for five days, and the whole time it was really windy. These terns were part of a large mob all huddled on the beach, facing into the wind. 

The beach is also a road — obviously only when the tide's out — and the occasional vehicle whizzes by ... and 4WD bikes as well.

When we walked to the beach, we were near the north end. Those white spots near the water on the right are terns.

When the tide's in, this rocky section is inaccessible.

The rock strata here is really interesting. 

Here's where we stayed. I'm taking the photo from the corner of the park just after we'd come back through the gate from the beach. Most of the people were parked up to our right (out of the photo). As you can see, we had no close neighbours — there's plenty of room!

We would have liked to have stayed longer, but with it being so dry up in the Far North, there were major water restrictions. The normal place a camper could fill up with water was not available, so we had to leave and travel back down the island until we could find water.

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Tongaporutu - The Three Sisters

Tongaporutu is a small place 15km south of Mokau, about 68km north of New Plymouth. It's situated at the mouth of the Tongaporutu River, just off State Highway 3. As you travel along the highway, this is the view if you look to the east towards the sea as you cross the bridge.

There's a great free camping spot where you can stay for three days if you're fully self-contained. We're near the end; there's more parking space on the left side of the photo, closer to the river.

 At low tide, you can walk along the black sand towards the river mouth, then along the beach towards "The Three Sisters". It's an easy walk but can be slippery in places, especially alongside the river. I wore sneakers, but when you get to the beach, there are a lot of places where water flows from the land down to the sea and to get past those, you might need to get your feet wet.

The cliffs along here consist of grey papa and sandstone. The action of the ocean is consistently shaping and eating away at the coastline. I read that it's believed to be eroding at the rate of two metres annually.

One of the first rock formations we came to had an interesting carving of a face on it. 

Looking back at this huge rock, you can see how the sea and weather have created caves and tunnels.

Looking past the rock, the landform you can see in the background is actually on the other side of the river mouth. The effect of the sea is obvious here as well with caves clearly visible.

Eventually, we arrived at The Three Sisters, or what is now "The Two Sisters" since the sea claimed one of them. In the distance to the left is what's left of Elephant Rock — you can make out the two legs and back of the elephant, but it lost it's trunk to erosion in 2016.

We've travelled past Tongaporutu for years, and this is the first time we've stopped to have a look. It's so easy to be 'too busy' and miss out on experiencing this beautiful area. Twenty years ago there were apparently four sisters! So if you want to see these, take the time to stop before the sea claims them all. Having said that, in the photo above, you can see another pillar to the left, so who knows what the sea will carve out of the landscape over the next twenty years.

This, I believe, is one of the original Three Sisters with the top shaped to look like a face. She currently provides a home for nesting white-fronted terns. (I think that's what they are!) They're the white dots halfway up.

A closer view ... Mumma tern and her chick are safe from humans with their nest way up here.

Here's a closer look at the coastline on the other side of the river mouth. During high tide, most of these caves would be underwater.

On our way back, we stopped to chat with Gavin, our motorhome neighbour. You never know who you're going to come across while travelling ... we knew Gavin and Vicki when we lived in Stratford about 20 years ago. Although no fish were caught today, I understand kahawai have been in the past.

Walking back along the side of the river. This walk is not possible at high tide, so you need to time your visit to make sure you can access the beach and have long enough to see what you want to without getting caught by the incoming tide. It's only about a 15-minute walk to the rock formations, and the coastline all along the way is well worth seeing.

On the day we left, I took this photo as we drove over the bridge. You can see where the campers park on the right side of the photo.

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A Sunday Walk

Although we went to Taranaki for our gransdson's fifth birthday, we've returned to Fairway Bay Marina. We came for one night back in July and ended staying .... Apologies for infrequent blog posts since then. With not travelling and 'sightseeing' so much, there didn't seem to be so much to tell you. But now we're settling in here for I don't know how long, and we're hoping to do a few short trips here and there around this area.

Sitting up on our bed gives Lucy a great view of what's going on outside the rig. The boat you can see is Stella. She belongs to Grant, the guy who owns Yogi's Bar and Eatery nearby.

One Sunday, we decided to go for a walk around to the Gulf Harbour Marina. We're actually in the Fairway Bay Marina, which is towards the east of Gulf Harbour. You might be able to see a path to the left of the photo near Lucy's eyebrow ... that's where we'll be walking ... along that top white stripe and to the left—west. (The lower white strip is part of Stella's railing.)

To get to the other side, we have to walk over towards Yogi's (east/right), along the road (Pinecrest Drive) for a short way, then into the bush onto the other side of the marina.

Here we're in the bush, walking along the track, looking across at Yogi's Bar. That's the black-roofed building and the area directly this side of it. The red roof is just a roof ... there were plans at one stage for there to be a regular market with stalls in this area, but although it's advertises as such, apparently it didn't work out. So, no market. Shame—it would have been fun!

  The track gets quite muddy after it's been raining, but we still managed to navigate our way along.

Looking back at Yogis.

  Further along, looking back at Stella. You can see our rig just beyond the electric gate (at the end of the ramp). The gates are all locked for security reasons and give access to the boats. By now, we've come out of the bush and are walking along the path mentioned earlier, shown in the first two photos.

 A little further on, looking back at Stella. 

 And then directly out at the marina. At this stage we've left Fairway Bay Marina, and we're now looking at boats in the Gulf Harbour Marina. The cut-off point is just this side of Stella.

Looking back at the path we've just walked along.

  And forward ... walking around the side of some apartments in the Gulf Harbour Marina area.

Gulf Harbour apartments.

Past the apartments, we crossed over the road to arrive at a small block of shops. It's really just a small grocery store and a cafe—some real estate offices as well. I can't remember much else. You can walk around right beside the water—it's restful and pretty. 

We stopped at Cherry Cafe for a coffee—those 'twin towers' are a bit of a landmark in Gulf Harbour.

We returned the same way we'd come. After walking back along the road and entering the Fairway Bay Marina land, there were a couple of pukekos off to the left of the path. They weren't bothered in the least by my presence; they were more interested in each other. 

Love them or hate them, they really do have beautiful colouring.

As we head back 'home' towards Yogi's, there's a small beach area off to the right and also a picnic table and chairs under that beautiful old tree.

Directly ahead is The Kitchen Door. Sean bakes a variety of goods (the smell is delicious when you walk past!) including British-style pasties and pork pies—and yes, we've sampled them; the pasties are delicious, and the cold pork pies are different to any pies I've eaten before. I'm sure they're something ex-pat Brits would be keen to get their hands on. Sean sends out UK Food Parcels—maybe that's the bulk of his business as there's not a lot of foot traffic past here. Well, not at this time of year, anyway! You can check out The Kitchen Door and their goodies online here.

This beach is crushed shells and man-made. However, it's nice to actually have any kind of beach so close, although there's no swimming allowed here in the marina. Maybe we'll be able to paddle in the summer! 

Lucy found a friend.

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Gulf Harbour

We're currently parked up at the Fairway Bay Marina at Gulf Harbour on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and will be here for five more weeks. Yes, the plan was to head further north, but things happened . . . .

We were having problems with our TV pixilating and, as Apollo (the company who provided our Satellite Dish) are in Whangaparaoa, we planned a night at this marina nearby before we took the rig in for them to sort out the next morning. Seems the issue was not as straightforward as we'd expected . . . after spending a morning on the side of the road while the Apollo people were first trying to find out what was wrong and then waiting for people to return phone calls, we were no closer to a resolution. We were a bit too close to Carters' driveway and making it difficult for large trucks to get in there, so we moved down the road to Mitre 10's car park. By about 4pm, we decided we'd be spending another night at the marina.

Back at the marina, Dave went to have a beer with Phil, the chap who looks after the property (the part where campers can stay, not the boats). Phil announced that he was off to the UK for five weeks and—long story short—Dave now has a job filling in while he's away. He has to collect the money from people who come to stay in their motorhomes, caravans, etc., clean the ablutions block twice a week and get some gas bottles filled up in town for the nearby Yogi's Bar & Eatery (owned by his new boss, Grant). For performing these tasks, we'll get a free site and free power for the duration of our stay. Not having to travel for a while suits me also as it frees up some time; I've been busier than usual lately, having picked up another proofreading job which required quite a bit of research. Although it's been time-consuming, I'm really enjoying it.

This is the entrance to the marina car park.

A road off to the right goes down to Yogi's Bar.

Through the gate at the end of the car park, you can see us parked there to the left.

This is the view from the other side. Phil's fifth wheeler—he's parked here permanently—is on the left, and the motorhome to the right stayed a couple of nights, then moved on.

Looking from our rig towards the boats.

Off to the right as you enter the gate is this area where travellers not needing power can park up for $15/night. It's probably a lot busier here in the summer. Yogi's is the building immediately to the right of the caravan. The ablutions block is behind Yogis.

Stella—Grant and Bronnie's boat. We can see her from our bedroom and lounge windows.

Across from Stella . . .

. . . and rotating right (you'll notice the boat on the very left is the same as the one in the photo above).

All the ramps down to the boats are protected with these locked gates and CCTV security cameras. That's Stella hidden behind the gate.

There're a couple of eastern rosellas—aka rosella parakeets—that must live around here. We've seen them more than once, foraging on the ground outside our rig.

This cute kingfisher is a change from the ever-present seagull.
I saw a beautiful pheasant one day, up on a little grassy hill just behind our rig; but he was too crafty for me and saw me coming with my camera.

There's been a lot of rain around here but today the sun was shining, so we thought we'd go for a short walk around to the entrance of the marina. There're a lot of boats moored up here!

There it is—where the boats exit. Note this catamaran cruising along. We followed it and took a few more photos as it made its way out of the entrance.

Auckland City in the distance over the water.

There's a small beach at the end of the track we were walking along. Matakana Island is in the distance to the left.

The catamaran again, this time with its sail up and with Auckland City as a backdrop.

Walking back . . . this is the track we were wandering along. Water on one side and bush and trees on the other. There was quite a bit of gorse down here; obviously not a tourist spot.

The tenacity of trees in the face of crumbling foundations fascinates me, especially huge ones like this. You can see a large branch has broken off near the base and is just hanging there.

There are some beautiful homes around this area. In the distance are Gulf Harbour buildings. These ones look like apartments—we drive past them on the way back in to Whangaparoa; we'll have to explore!

A closer view.

Our TV is temporarily fixed. After several hours of trying to identify the problem (pulling out controllers, emptying cupboards so the wiring under the base could be checked, etc.), both guys—yes, by now there were two of them on the job—decided the interference was being caused by the proximity of our modem to the wiring controlling our TV. Things work well if the modem is moved down to the floor—which is bearable while we're plugged in to power as we have a power outlet down low—but when we get back on the road again, we'll need to have it hardwired. Next week, they're planning to come back and try another couple of modems to see if we can find something that's compatible. It's just as well we're staying here; but we're not looking forward to seeing their bill.

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