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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