Whangateau

Checkout was at 10, we had a relaxed morning with a shower on the farm. Before leaving we had a look at a part of their land which had the smallest chapel of New Zealand, some chickens that thought we were there to feed them, and some other funny objects they had no space for anymore in their shed exhibition.

Next stop was the Kauri museum, but not before we had to return at some point because we realised we had forgotten food that was still in the fridge. When we finally got to the museum, we used a discount card we received from the car rental company, so the entrance price wasn't too bad. We read good reviews about the museum and they turned out to be correct. It was a huge museum with too much information to take in about kauri trees, gum, and New Zealand history. It was very interesting to learn about the value of the Kauri tree and its gum in the past and how they build dams that they would open once the water was high enough to move these huge heavy trees from the forest to the coast.

When we were ready to leave again we discovered that it had rained in the meantime, so our far too dirty car got a free wash and looked reasonably dirty now. We drove further with the goal of sleeping somewhere close to Goat Island, where we wanted to snorkel the next day. This turned out tricky again as we didn't find 75NZD (45€) an acceptable price for a campsite. We ended up in Whangateau were we spend 46NZD and were positively surprised by all the new facilities they had. And we were lucky too, as they had exactly one spot left. We cooked the usual pasta dinner, had a late evening walk to the local graveyard, and did some more research about where we were going next.Read more