Bland Bay to KariKari Peninsula

Hey!

That's nearly another week in our van and we've nearly been in NZ for a month - crazy! Here's what we've been up to in the last week.

In my last blog I mentioned that we were staying in Bland Bay. What a name. It certainly wasn't bland. That was one of our favourite swimming spots. There was a rope swing in the water and the spot was amazing for swimming and practising our snorkelling. At that campsite we met a lovely family who said that we should come and stay with them and have dinner when we are passing. Very cool. We are hoping to stop in on our way back from the north.

Next, we headed to one of the main towns in the Bay of Islands - Russell. This is a sleepy town with nice cafes and a lot of art defo style housing. We enjoyed wandering around the town, looking in the quaint shops and we also visited NZ's oldest church 'Christ Church'. We were tempted to do a sail around the bays but it's very expensive and the weather wasn't great. We might head back to the Bay of Islands after heading north. I did, however, hear about a nearby winery 'Omata Estate'. It turned out that it was 5 minutes from where we were staying that night. Handy. We ended up checking it out. There were 5 of their wines on offer for us to taste. Their reserve Syrah was my favourite. It was a beautiful spot with amazing views. We ended up staying for a late lunch/early dinner and wandered through the vineyards to a lookout. We mentioned that we'd been working for Scott's dad in a winery and they mentioned that they are grape picking soon. We've given them an email to ask if they still need help. They said they could pay us in wine or money - hmm tricky choice. At the camp we were staying at there was a pool. We went for a little dip in the morning and chatted to one of the Dutch workers. He's doing the same as us and said that there is a lot of work available. Next stop was the Okiato to Opua car ferry. This took us over to Paihia. Paihia was so so busy. There was an cruise liner in which kind of ruined it. We didn't stay in town for long but headed out to Waitangi Treaty Grounds. This was a must see. Here you can learn about the treaty between Maori and Britain. It was very interesting to learn more about NZ history. That night we ended up at Huraru Falls. The falls weren't as big as Whangerai but still impressive. We stayed at a camp that night with views over the Falls. We thought it would be a perfect spot to see the Super, Blue, Blood Moon. We woke up at 2am but it was cloudy!! The 1st of February was the wettest day so far. We tried to see as much in KeriKeri as we could. We explore the Old Stone Store which is the oldest stone building in NZ. We then found a chocolate factory with the most amazing brittle, cakes and ice cream. You could watch the chocolatiers at work. Pretty cool for us, but off-putting for them I'm sure. We wandered around the local shops and then checked out Rainbow Falls. There's apparently a beautiful rainbow when it's sunny. We stayed at Aroha Island that night. It was very wet, our van kept steaming up and there were a lot of mosquitoes. This meant we couldn't open our windows or we'd be bitten to death. Fun times. We played cards and then managed to get out in the only dry part of the evening to watch the sun set. The next day, we ended up heading back to Rainbow Falls to see the rainbow, now that the sun was back. It was amazing. We then drove out to Marsden Cross. This was the first missionary settlement in NZ. It was a long walk but it was great to see more of the local history and the quiet beach was beautiful. We headed to Matauri Bay to jump in the waves before finding a camp in Mangonui. It was a lay by that was by the water. After dinner, we wandered along to the town and found a cute pub with a local country band playing. Yesterday we were busy. We walked out to St Paul's Rock Scenic Reserve. It was a 600m hike in the sun but the views at the top were amazing. A 360° view of Whangaroa. We were already warm and knew about the nearby Duke's Nose walk, so we thought we may as well give it a go. We walked along the Waikara Stream for 2 hours. It was quite an effort but we enjoyed walking amongst the forest. After that, the sea was calling.We found a surfer's dream of a place - Taupo Bay. The waves were amazing. You couldn't really swim, the waves were so high and the pull was crazy. We stayed in Mangonui again last night. 

Today we walked up to Rangikapiti Scenic Reserve. We were amazed by the views over to Doubtless Bay and we tried to spot any wildlife. We then headed along past Coopers Beach and Cable Bay and headed towards KariKari Peninsula. We stopped at Rangiputa beach - a small but beautiful Polynesian style beach and then drove along a very bumpy track (our Hiace did well) to Puheke Beach. This beach was almost empty yet it was the most tropical beach we've seen so far. We took a picnic and went for a quick dip. We're staying at a free camp at Tokerau beach tonight. The beach goes on for miles and miles. We'll definitely be going in for an evening dip.

That's us for now. We're continuing our travels around Doubtless Bay next (it looks stunning) and then onwards to Cape Reinga.

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X gf v x

P.s last night we made a Bolognese using lentils - very tasty!! Corn on the cob is cheap here. $3 for 5 - we've got that for dinner tonight. GF food is available but it's not cheap. There are lots of tasty corn/rice cakes and snacks that are GF. Also, apart from running, walking and swimming I've added a skipping rope to my daily routine. Got to keep fit eh!