Dargaville - Waitakere - Gulf Harbour

Becca Mary
Mar 16, 2018
3 min read

Wow what a busy 3 weeks we've had with many different experiences. The last time I blogged about our trip, I mentioned that we had heard about potential work at the Kumara Box. We stayed the night there (you can park on their front lawn) and made an amazing friend. We played cards and '5 Second rule' - a game where you need to answer questions with 3 answers in 5 seconds. It's amazing how blank your mind can go with the easiest questions ha. Anyway, when we were leaving in the morning the owner mentioned that it was a shame we weren't around for the harvest. We quickly jumped at the chance for work and said we'd love to help out. They said they were starting the harvest around the 19th of March. That night we changed our plans of going south and decided to explore around the west of Auckland before we needed to head back up. We've done pretty well stopping at lots of places on our way to the west. We explored more of the Kaipara Harbour - Tinopai where we saw hundreds of white fronted terns and Pahi which hosts one of the world's largest fig trees - before heading over to Te Arai. We had missed this beach on our way up and I'm so glad we went back. It's definitely been the best beach for body boarding so far AND it's meant to be one of the best spots for photos of the milky way (unfortunately it was cloudy when we woke at 3am). We were keen to walk the Mangawhai Heads Cliff Walkway (last time we stopped there it was wayyyy too hot and we would have ended up a nice shade of lobster). It was veryyy humid but we didn't mind. The views were unreal over the coast. We checked out Helensville - a very american style town with quirky buildings and found our way to shelly Beach. We didn't swim here as there have been many sightings of great white sharks! The cafe is awesome there and we were lucky to be given a few free coffees because the daughter who worked there was teaching her mum how to perfect cappuccinos. Anyway, this was the first stop on our travels around the West of Auckland. A hot springs in Parakai that was slightly dated ha but we enjoyed the flumes and an awesome brewery in Riverside (there's alot of wineries aroybd there too) were the most memorable spots before heading to the Waitakere area. We used Arataki as a base for the west. There are so many walks around the Ranges. Unfortunately a lot are closing or are soon to close due to the Kauri Dieback disease. There are a lot of great places to visit here. You've got Piha with the Lion Rock and surf beach, Tasman loop tracks, Muriwai with an amazing gannet colony, Bethells beach with great dunes, two beautiful waterfalls - KiteKite and KareKare and eerie caves in Whatipu (one cave used to host local dances and it has a hidden kauri floor). We loved all of the walks and the sunrises and sunsets we experienced. We didn't enjoy the experience of our leaking food waste tank so much...that was a fun day at Mitre10 trying to fix it! We really liked Titirangi - cute cafes and a contemporay art gallery. It's Auckland but not as busy. There was a great beach around there you could stay at too. We stayed there a couple nights and saw kingfishers and herons. Beautiful spot for swimming! Just as we were about to start slowly heading back up, I got a message from a girl I went to Uni with. She mentioned that she has friends who live in Gulf Harbour and thay we were welcome to visit for a bed and shower. We were heading that way anyway so took them up on their kind offer. Well...would you believe it. They were going to a wedding on the Saturday and invited us along to the evening reception! The groom is Scottish so we were the gift from Scotland ha. Everyone was so welcoming (even though no one knew us) and we've stayed with the family since then. We've been exploring around North Shore and relaxing before heading up to Dargaville for work. It's been such a treat and we feel very lucky. I've loved meeting their granddaughter and helping her with homework. So we've got a dinner tonignt and a Paddys party tomorrow before we head up to Dargaville. That'll be a shock to the system - 8 until 5 Monday to friday/Saturday. I'll keep you posted on how we get on!