To Sandy Bay, Whale Bay and onto Whangarei by Joanna

 Our poor aching bodies tumbled from the van for yet another treacherous day. So what a delight to find a well formed track, that wound through beautiful bush and along a magnificent coastline that showcased several bays. It wven included the longest footbridge in New Zealand It was a shortish stroll (3 hours) for a total of 12 kilometres. That in itself shows that it was easy walking. 

Barbara (Jenny's sister) joined us for a cafe lunch - spending the kids inheritance again - we walked down another forest track, past more fabulous trees to the most beautiful beach in the world - Whale Bay. Part of the attraction is that there is no car access, so there were only a smattering of other people here.  The water was warm and the gentle swells lifted and lowered us like a cradle.  

Today was a great day. 

We are now in Whangarei, staying at Jenny's mother's place. We will be here until next Tuesday so we are very grateful for her generosity. While here we head out each day to do other Te Araroa sections


Please note this photo of us 
with our walking sticks next to the sign. 









in the vicinity.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tawharanui Regional Park, the glass bottom boat and a picnic lunch.

Image
 We trooped down to the shore looking out towards Goat Island - according to the tour guide on board New Zealand has 22 goat islands, but this one has the distinction of never having had goats on it. It had two pigs, but they swam ashore at low tide, so he thinks it's mammal free - and bought tickets for the glass bottom boat. Three seniors and three adults. $220. The water was clear and the tour guide was informative. The larger fish had other places to be. We did see flurries of blue maumau, a range of different sized snappers, and lots of kelp. And quite a few red moki.  At 12 we lunched at a well placed picnic table overlooking the bay and watched the snorkellers. We ate a great assortment of leftover food from the fridge and then after a change of clothes set off for Tawharanui Regional Park. This is a hugely popular park, considering the amount of campers and surfers here, especially on a Thursday outside of school holidays.  We had high hopes of seeing Takahe, but ...
Read more

Sunday 26 February in Russell at the oldest church by Joanna

Image
Today was a rest day.  First we attended the St James anglican church at Kerikeri, at the Stone store Kemphouse mission enclave. The ships came into this bay from Australia with supplies back in the 19th century. Both places had interesting histories and we enjoyed our relaxing morning.  After lunch we took the ferry to Russell and the visited the oldest church in NZ and admired the pew cushions.  We went to a printing press - Pompalier house - where they set up a printing press to print Catholic books in Te Reo.  There was also a tanning industry in the same complex so we had a very informative tour. We bought indian takeways for dinner, and caught up on the laundry. Total steps for the day: 8820. Total steps for last week: 148703, or 104 km
Read more

Auckland Auckland! Our last whole day

Image
  Britomart and overpriced coffee.  That was the start of the day having taken the train from Otahuhu because the Onehunga line - like most lines in Auckland - is closed for repairs.  Then putting our best face forward we put on our grimaces and started the walks around the Auckland Streets. This turned out to be more interesting than expected, partly due to the ongoing search for the street signs saying where our next corner was.  Eventually we made our way to the bottom of Eden Park and Jenny insisted we depart the 20km route and go to the top of Mt Eden. And having done this, and hardly complained once, we had the best view of Auckland we could hope for.  Joanna had also requested a detour through the Wintergarden, so you can see some photos of this as well.  Then onto Cornwall Park, commissioned and paid for by the John Logan Campbell Trust - after Burger King for sustenance.  We side-swiped One Tree Hill (Bruce insisted we half summitted it) and o...
Read more