Whangarei

On to the Whangarei area, north of Auckland. We made one slight detour near Auckland to a HUGE craft shop that had more of the yarn I’d bought at Yarn On in Hamilton. Wanted one more skein for a shawl. Some people say that buying yarn and knitting are actually two different hobbies. They might be right.

We continued north on Route 1 stopping for fresh fruit yogurt cones at Wazza’s in Wellsford. Yum! Continued up and over the Brynderwyns. Someone had mentioned that there’s a point in the road where you suddenly get amazing sweeping vistas of the sea and rolling farmland, they were right. Beautiful green fields sweeping down to the sea. We stopped at the Brynderwyns scenic outlook, really just a narrow path up a slope next to a farm field, but with gorgeous views. And wow, a small barista-mobile, aptly named The Bayview Barista. New Zealand amazes me with the crazy places you can find fabulous coffee.

We drove through the port area of Whangarei on our way to Parua Bay and on to our airbnb at the top of a very steep hill that required opening a cattle gate to gain access. At the top there were stunning views out over Parua Bay to Whangarei Heads and beyond. Thanks to our London-based Senior Nomad friends, Ray and Steve, for recommending this out of the way place. It was two large buildings arranged in an L shape around a crystal clear blue swimming pool, that and the views were the appeal. The Airbnb was the newish side of the L and a very old house was the other side. Seems that older home had somehow been moved there from elsewhere. Must have been done in many pieces, the steep hill would have made it impossible otherwise. The only real drawback here was a lack of privacy, the wall of glass doors from the huge living area to the pool area had no drapes and the people housesitting for the owners, though very nice, were very present almost all the time.

We had 3 full days here. One day we drive to Paranui Falls. A nice, fairly easy walk through shaded bushland to a high, but not very robust waterfall. It’s been a very dry summer in the Northland. The walk back went through Kauri trees and over a bridge high over the stream from the waterfall. Kauri trees are native to New Zealand and endangered by a fungal infection the kills the roots of the trees. At the start of most walks, you pass through a boot scraping brush and a shoe disinfecting spray in hopes of preventing the spread. On the way out, we passed some families having great fun in a big pool of water in a bend in the stream. It was a steep climb down, we didn’t attempt It!

From there we could have walked an hour or so to Whangārei Falls. My annoying heart meds keep me from being able to do that kind of thing these days (they do keep my heart from freaking out, so there’s that…) So we drove to Whangārei. A much busier area, because the parking lot is only 2 minutes to the falls. And a much heavier flow of water through these falls. Again, kids playing in the water, this time above the falls, though the signs warned that the water might be quite polluted with farm runoff, etc.

We had a lazy day at the Airbnb the next day, reading, sunning, swimming.

And on our last day we drove out to Ocean Beach, a small beach nestled between large rock formations at either end. A beach with strong surf and potentially a rip-tide at one end. 3 surf lifeguards were keeping keen eyes on a very narrow (10-15 meters?) area of swimmable beach. Most people were keeping to that narrow area. Beyond that there was a surf competition going on. A small stand was setup with umbrellas shading 2 or 3 very serious people with iPads who were scoring the kids surfing. Seemed like it was a bunch of teen boys out there first, followed by teen girls. All were having fun and some were catching some really good rides.

Driving further north the next day.Read more