Whatamango Bay

Another beautiful calm and warm day in paradise! On the way into (and out of) Marfells Beach we saw something neither of us had ever seen before: a grove of very short, almost stunted-looking round-headed pine trees. What was this we asked – a way of providing shelter for the cows that were grazing nearby? NO! It was a commercial pine nut orchard! Who knew?!
We arrived in the Riviera of the South Island (i.e. Picton!) late morning and after a quick coffee we met up with a work colleague from Wellington and her partner, who are here for a weekend with family. Karen and I have previously worked together at ACC (back in 2017!) and at Inland Revenue (2019 / 20 / 21), and I first met her partner Greg MANY moons ago at Transpower. We had a lovely catchup over a pizza and a glass of wine and then did a quick mooch around the shops before hitting the road.
We passed through Waikawa Bay and on to tonight’s stopover: another DOC camp – this one at Whatamango Bay. We have found that the DOC camping grounds are in some of the most picturesque places in the country, and they are very reasonably priced – and relatively underutilized at this time of year – compared to commercial camping grounds. Many of them also have good access to walking tracks.
Once again we are right on the waterfront – we picked this site among some trees as we are expecting the weather to take a turn for the worst overnight and were looking for some shelter from the strong NW winds that are forecast to start tonight and last for the next couple of days.Read more