Saturday 20 October
This is our
final trip before I return to the UK and we thought we’d explore the Tutukaka
coastline, not being able to resist a place with a name like that. We’d touched on
it a little on our trip north with Anne and Andy back in July and it looked
worth further exploration, so we booked ourselves 2 nights very cheaply in
Ngunguru. We set off quite early driving north towards Whangarei, and this time
we stop at the Café Eutopia, in Kaiwaka, which we’d passed many times but
never stopped at before. A rather lovely, whacky NZ organic fantasy café: good
place for a coffee stop.
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| . . . and it looked even stranger on the inside |
Just before
reaching Ngunguru we stop for a walk beside the estuary which has a wonderful
turquoise river running down past a huge sandspit to the sea. We get to
Ngunguru by lunch time and find our bach which turns out to be a small but
self-contained space, close but separate from the owner’s house. He’s a lovely
little chap, a quarry man (his hands were rough and seriously misshapen) and he
has a great little dog called Maisie which Mike becomes very fond of: it has a
very loud bark and uses it every time you rattle the front gate. After dumping
our stuff we go in search of lunch and end up eating pies in the local café. NZ
is famous for its pies but this is my first, smoked fish, and not bad at all.
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| The sandspit in the distance was impossible to get to without a boat but area surrounding Ngunguru was beautiful |
As the day
is bright and sunny we decide to shoot off asap on a walk to Whale Bay. The
Tutukaka coastline is different from that around our part of NZ in that it has
lots of little bays and coves instead of the enormous long pristine beaches
we’re used to. We’d picked up a guide to local walks at the i-site in Whangarei
and drove to Matapouri, the next village up the coast, which has a fabulous
little crescent bay, typical of this area. There are quite a few people around
as it’s a holiday w/e, even people in swimming, the water never gets too cold
to swim up here.
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| Matapouri Beach with its turquoise water, much busier than last time we were here (at least a dozen people) |
At the far
end of the beach we find a track leading off to the left which takes us up onto
the headland and along to Whale Bay, another beautiful secluded crescent bay
without road access, but quite a few families here enjoying the sunshine. No
whales though unfortunately. The walk is circular and we find a route back
inland ending up back in Matapouri. Eat out in another local café and back to
our little home.
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| Looking back to Matapouri from the Whale Bay track |
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| Approaching Whale Bay which was even busier despite there being no road access |
Sunday 21 October
Weather’s
not so good today and we try to walk around the coast from our village.
Unfortunately there’s only a small window of opportunity during which you can
avoid getting cut off by the rising tide, and in our case we missed it, so had
to abort the attempt. Instead we do a coastal walk taking us north up from the
village of Tutukaka. It’s a very hilly walk and the winds blowing fiercely.
We’re following the many indentations of the coast and walking past some beautiful
houses and farms down by the shore.
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| Lovely display of sweet-smelling manuka |
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| An undulating path following the coastline up from the village of Tutukaka |
Although the
beaches aren’t private here in NZ none of these seem to have public access to
them and we can only gaze lovingly down at them from the hills behind the
‘Private Land’ notices being prominently displayed.
Monday 22 October
To the
Lighthouse today and the sun’s shining again for us. Set off after Mike’s had
his whitebait fritters for breakfast in the local café and park on the headland
from which it’s only an hour’s walk.
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| A short but steep walk from the car park and we're down on the causeway leading to the lighthouse |
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| Looking north along the coast from the lighthouse |
We walk
along the headland then steeply down to sea level and across the causeway. The
lighthouse is only accessible for a couple of hours either side of low tide but
we have plenty of time. Over the causeway we climb onto an island which has the
lighthouse at its summit, and it’s quite a struggle on a hot day to get up
there. There’s a terrific view both ways along the coast from here, showing off
the little coves, rocky promontories, and beaches of this beautiful coastline
with loads of little boats out enjoying the wonderful weather and calm seas.
The lighthouse itself is not much to write home about, not a patch on Jersey’s
Corbiere for sure!
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| Coming back down again to the causeway. Aperfect day for sailing round the Tutukaka, shame we didn't have a boat |
So that’s
the end of our little trip up the Tutukaka coast and now it’s just a week till
I head back to the UK for Christmas. So this will be the last of my little travel blogs for quite a while.
