First day exploring in our Camper

We woke up in the morning and had our Pb&J sandwiches (we also tried tea but our water carrier seems to just taint everything with a plastic taste :( safe to say we will be gettinf rid of that!) before heading to the beach for a stroll. The beach is lively and long and at the moment practically untouched. The long sand dune with lovely green grasses and bright purple flowers was a beautiful border to the sandy beach and the very small waves. We had a little paddle and discovered it was freezing before seeing some rain heading our way and hurrying back to the camper.

We soon set off for the days adventure after reorganising our storage for easier access come evening! We went to the Waipu museum first and learnt about how some Scots settled in the town of Waipu and colonised it to the point that they hold Highland games here every new years day. It was quite interesting to hear how they struggled from Scotland to Nova Scotia and from here to New Zealand after years of famine, all led by one Pastor, Norman Mcleod. The museum was a little repetitive in its tale of the colonisation and it was a shame that they had such a large collection of items and not enough to be said about them. Still... We learnt something new!

After the museum we decided to hi and have an adventure in the Waipu Caves. My navigating skills are somewhat shoddy so we ended up driving the wrong way at first but we got there eventually. The views in the way were once again amazing, they reminded us of English countryside but with the odd tropical tree or plant thrown in there.
The Caves are open to the public with no office, fee or guide which meant you could explore as much as you wanted 😁 We had our torches ready and I was glad to have a head torch to light the way....until the flies attacked my face again 😑 they even live in the caves!
The cave itself was huge and had lots of stalactites and a small stream running through. We had heard there were glow worms here too so we were eager to clamber through the caves to the deeper and darker chambers to see them. We had to walk through the stream and over a rock fall which was my unsturdy legs didn't enjoy the whole time. The view was so worth it though, with the lights on a beautiful chamber of smooth rock, worn by the water over the years. The ceiling was so high and still full of stalactites and the size of the chamber was huge. We climbed up a few more rocks and then turned off the lights. Now we got to look up at what might as well have been a night sky. It was full of green glow worms and they shone like little stars, scattered and grouped so they looked a little like constellations in the ceiling. It was so beautiful and I didn't really want to turn the touch back on. We couldn't stand there all day though so after a fee more minutes of gazing at the glowing green dots we headed back out again. At the exit we could see swifts taking advantage of the insects in the cave and across the fields just outside, speedy little arrows darting past us.

We set off now for a free nights stay we had found online that was right at the end of a peninsula. It was just a car park with toilets but it was free and that is all we need! 🤗

The drive to this site was amazing!! It was like Jurassic Park meets rolling English Farmland. Ridges and small mountains of thick green tropical forest were seen right next to grassy rolling fields with sheep and cattle grazing. It is so bizarre! The fields here also seem to be more for grazing rather than crop and so the green is overwhelming. There is also very little traffic and the roads are mostly gravelly and winding which is pretty fun 🤗
We saw so many birds of prey too and one we even scared off the road with its catch! It flew right alongside us just behind the trees that came up on our left from the steep drop beside us. It was awesome to watch until it eventually disappeared. We also almost killed hundreds of birds when we came across a whole swarm of them on the road. They were very small and flew up all at once on a big cloud right I front of us. Fortunately Rob slowed quickly enough and we were jot responsible for any small bird deaths today.

One of the most stunning parts of the drive was along the peninsula. The road took us right beside the high tide line and although the tide was not fully in, the view was amazing and the sea looked turquoise! There were areas of wetland type ground and then all you could see was the meandering coast, lots of sandy bays and little islands out to sea. So picturesque!

Eventually we arrived at Uruqharts Bay car park at Bream Head and we parked up ready for the evening. We had made sure to get there for around 5 this time so we could cook before the sunset and the bugs! There was another huge RV there too and then a couple more like us with little family car Camper conversions. In fact the people next to us just had a big car and we saw them start to set up for cooking we realised they may actually be sleeping in it. They just slept on their seats which I can't understand as it just cannot be all that comfy 🤔 their sinner smelt good though, Asian cooks with lovely Asian smelling food! We were a little bit jealous after our rice and chicken soup. It was a bit liquidy and was more like rice ramen in that sense. It tasted good though and the beans filled it out, plus we got to eat it at a picnic bench on the beach with a pretty stunning view and the sound of the waves.
After searching for pretty shells and tidying away we then watched our neighbours cook in the fading light whilst eating pineapple and feeling quite smug from inside our Camper...this was why we arrived early!
The rain set in shortly after and we decided to call it a night. We settled in to bed and after a few minutes of worry that someone was going to tell us to move on, we fell asleep.Read more