We had a good nights sleep at Ahipara and awoke fairly early as usual. However, our leisurely horizon cup of tea was rudely interrupted by the local Fire Brigade driving all around the town, including through the camps site, with their sirens blaring! It would appear that this is their idea of how to wish every one a Merry Christmas - but is what quite alarming. I thought for a moment that it was a Tsunami alarm.
Drama over we left early and headed south east to our ferry crossing from Rangiora to Rawene which crosses the Hokianga Harbour. This saves a long detour and whilst we had to wait a while we were pleased to have it confirmed that the ferry operated on Christmas Day. This is probably the longest days drive of our holiday and we did not want to drive the long way round if at all possible.
The drive along the harbour was lovely and when we reached the mouth at Opononi and Omapere the views were stunning, particularly of the massive sand dunes on the northern side.
On down the west coast stopping briefly to observe the giant Kauri trees in the jungle like Waipoua forest; all very spectacular. The vegetation is so dense that there does not seem to be an inch of ground visible.
I thought you would like the example of Kiwi humour, or perhaps more correctly Kiwi philosophy, on the side of the Jucy camper van. If you find it hard to read it says The glass is half full - and the other half was delicious.
On though Dargaville and Ruawai we finally headed east to join the east coast highway, at Brynderwyn which I thought sounded like a Welsh Opera singer. We were now retracing our steps down the east side until we headed off the highway to the coast via the very fashionable resort of Orewa which is ~40Km north of Auckland. We had tried to book the Top Ten camp site at Orewa but it was fully booked, not entirely surprising on Christmas Day, so drove another few miles to Red Beach where we had successfully booked. Arriving at about 16:00 there was nobody at reception and relied upon a fellow camper to direct us to what would appear be be our pitch.
Off went for what turned out to be a fairly short cycle ride as the LLW decreed that the hills surrounding the resort were far too steep to even contemplate.
Back a the camp site the LLW conjured up and excellent Christmas dinner of honeyed chicken asparagus, tomatoes and sauted potatoes. All very good and washed down with an excellent Oyster Bay, Rose fizz.
Drama over we left early and headed south east to our ferry crossing from Rangiora to Rawene which crosses the Hokianga Harbour. This saves a long detour and whilst we had to wait a while we were pleased to have it confirmed that the ferry operated on Christmas Day. This is probably the longest days drive of our holiday and we did not want to drive the long way round if at all possible.
The drive along the harbour was lovely and when we reached the mouth at Opononi and Omapere the views were stunning, particularly of the massive sand dunes on the northern side.
On down the west coast stopping briefly to observe the giant Kauri trees in the jungle like Waipoua forest; all very spectacular. The vegetation is so dense that there does not seem to be an inch of ground visible.
On though Dargaville and Ruawai we finally headed east to join the east coast highway, at Brynderwyn which I thought sounded like a Welsh Opera singer. We were now retracing our steps down the east side until we headed off the highway to the coast via the very fashionable resort of Orewa which is ~40Km north of Auckland. We had tried to book the Top Ten camp site at Orewa but it was fully booked, not entirely surprising on Christmas Day, so drove another few miles to Red Beach where we had successfully booked. Arriving at about 16:00 there was nobody at reception and relied upon a fellow camper to direct us to what would appear be be our pitch.
Off went for what turned out to be a fairly short cycle ride as the LLW decreed that the hills surrounding the resort were far too steep to even contemplate.
Back a the camp site the LLW conjured up and excellent Christmas dinner of honeyed chicken asparagus, tomatoes and sauted potatoes. All very good and washed down with an excellent Oyster Bay, Rose fizz.
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