Mangonui County

Our first stop was basically 5 minutes from our camping. For the first time during this beach trip we had an entire beach for ourselves and it wasn't a small one. After visiting yet another beach we were driving back off the peninsula. Because it was anyway on our way, we had a look at the so called 'Coca Cola' lake. The water is orangish. We drove further.

On the way to the far north, campermate showed some interesting sight in Awanui. A factory producing and selling products made off Kauri wood. The big Kauri tree with carved-in stairs was the highlight.

With our new network provider 2degrees we get a 'free hour' of mobile Internet every day. Sounds great, but we realized that this isn't very useful when you're in an area with little to no connection. So it was difficult to upload our footprint having to upload one picture after the other hoping for the wind to blow from the right direction or who knows what actually influenced the speed.

We weren't in a rush to go further north and instead decided to arrive at a camping early to secure a good spot. We were a bit scared after hearing the night before that all campings were full. Arriving at Utea Park camping at the 90 mile beach, it turned out they had plenty of space. The campsite was awesome, right in the dunes with a very relaxing beach holiday flair. We enjoyed spending our afternoon there a lot although it was far too windy to even think about swimming.

Staying at a campsite practically in the dunes of a beach at the west coast has the advantage of seeing the sunset. It was a sunny day with few clouds so our odds were high. Tired of the wind, we were resting a bit in our tent like dumbasses until we'd go out and see it. Of course when we got out of the tent, the sunset was already going on. We half ran to the 90 mile beach to see it unfold, only to realise it disappearing behind clouds on the horizon. Tough luck.Read more