Gulf Harbour

Our last stop up north, before passing through Auckland, was Gulf Harbour. We have a lot of friends here from the time we lived in Fairway Bay Marina, so as we were 'passing', wanted to take the opportunity to stop and say hi. Who knows when we'll be back up this way! Sadly, with the Covid-19 (Corona virus) wrecking its own flavour of havoc, (causing isolation and restricted group gatherings), plus being short on time, we missed a few of them.

The photo above shows the entrance to the marinas and that's one of the ferries on the left (yellow) — berthed and taking on passengers.

We stayed in the Gulf Harbour car park. This is the same piece of grass as in the previous photo, just turned about 90 degrees. The ferry is to my right, entrance to the marina directly behind me and to the left ... the sea.

The view from the slide-out window in our rig. That's the entrance to the marina to the left of the tree.

A stunning day — perfect to be out on the water. We're not sure about this poor cruise ship out in the harbour — they were there when we arrived and still there when we left. I expect they cannot dock because of the Covid-19 restrictions at present.

Meanwhile, yachties make the most of the fabulous weather. Auckland City is in the background.

And this is one of the ferries, arriving from Auckland. You can see SkyTower behind them.

More people enjoying the water. 

Coming out of the marina ... 

A beautiful sunset to finish off a lovely day.

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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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Bringing the Joan Maree Home

This is the Joan Maree — she belongs to our friends Al and Karen who live on board, moored in the Fairway Bay Marina where we're based at the moment. Al and Karen built this houseboat themselves and recently had her lifted out of the water so they could do some more work on the underneath. When the additions and maintenance were completed, we agreed to help them on the day they'd chosen to get her back into the water. Well, Dave did ... I just recorded the events!

Disclaimer: If I use the wrong terminology, please forgive me ... I'm not a boatie or a crane driver!

We were up reasonably early that morning. Alan and Karen had driven their vehicles to the marina and we gave them a lift back down the road — about 15-20 minutes — to the boatyard. Mark (another marina neighbour) turned up as well. It was a stunning, calm morning ... the tide was well in and the water was like glass.

There she was ... sitting up on blocks with a shiny new black bottom with some modifications. There are three 'keels' under the Joan Maree — they're easier to see in some of the following photos. The outside two were widened and the middle one extended in the hope that she'd ride higher in the water.

 The crane that was going to lift her back into the water was alongside, waiting for the driver to arrive.

The front windscreen of this crane truck looks like it's seen better days ... hmm.

Some last-minute things to sort out on board. These steps were what they'd used to get on and off the houseboat over the previous weeks.

Another view of the crane truck, this one showing the wheels off the ground; it has stabilisers — one shows in the right foreground of this pic; they're more obvious in other photos. Note the wide straps lying on the ground to the left; these are the slings to go under the houseboat.
Then the crane driver, Tim, arrived.

Action!  

Trust me — I know what I'm doing ...

(I'm remembering the windscreen.)

Tim manoeuvred this big hook over to where some straps were lying on the ground, attached to a sort of girder. Tim and Alan attached them to the big hook while Mark watched.

 The girder was lifted up and swung across the Joan Maree, with another pair of straps dangling down at each end.

 This girder had to be positioned dead centre over the Joan Maree. Tim climbed out of the crane a few times to see what was happening on the other side and to line things up. 

The ends of the straps were attached to the two slings that were lying on the ground under the houseboat.

And up she went ... very slowly.

Tim instructing Mark on how he wants things to be done. The entire procedure from when Tim arrived to when the Joan Maree was in the water took over an hour.

 Out over the water ...

It needs to be swung out over and past that post sticking up out of the water.

Down she comes, just missing the post.

She settled on the water so slowly and carefully, there wasn't even a ripple. I guess Tim does know what he's doing! And success! She rides higher in the water than she used to.

All aboard with the final bits and pieces... 

... floating the slings off the back end.

Ropes untied, pushing her away from that post ...

There she goes!

Down the river, around the bend and out of sight. My task was to drive our vehicle back home to the marina and wait for them to arrive. They stopped to do some fishing along the way ... fish for tea — yay!

Arriving back at the marina.

There's been a bit of movement since they've been away and now they need to nestle in between two big catamarans. That gap looks rather small! You can see the left back of one of the catamarans off to the right, and the front of the other is just peeking out in front of the houseboat.

She nosed in first ... ropes were thrown to helpers ashore to help pull her around ...

... and there she is. Welcome home, guys!