The Gravelly Road

Being awoken by natural daylight and birds tweeting their little ditties to each other is a wonderful way to start the day. To then exit the campervan and see all the magnificent scenery that New Zealand has to offer right on your doorstep is something else. Birds foraging for worms, cobwebs still wet with the morning dew, and guy in next caravan still on his laptop. I assume he did go to sleep at some point and that he isn’t some kind of cyborg sent to scour the internet in campsites for all eternity. We had slept well in our new locations and decided that these would be our usual places, just like we used to when we had the bunk-beds as kids. We needed to pack everything up, disconnect the power, empty the waste water and top up the drinking water before we could set off, and we even tried to SKYPE the parents back in England but a problem in the wording of the email and the difference in time zones put a stop to that.

Contemplating our next move

Our first port of call was Omapere, along the coast from where we had been staying, but first we would need to navigate Whaipua Forest. It didn’t seem like far on the map, and should only take a short time to drive through, but we were wrong, oh so wrong. Whaipua Forest is beautiful. It has lush, verdant forests that are laden with all manner of different species of flora (and probably fauna, but we didn’t see anything) and has one single road that cuts straight through it. This has to be one of the most winding and hilly roads we have come across and it took forever to get through it. Thankfully nothing jumped out in front of the car (unlike the day earlier when on two separate occasions we came across dogs walking in the road and really not wanting to get out of the way of the hulking great campervan tearing towards them) and we came across only a handful of quad-bikes and cars beetling through the forest so it wasn’t a particularly busy stretch of road.

Our first stop-off was at South Head, Omapere, whereby we ditched the campervan and walked the short track down to the edge of the bay. And it was truly magnificent. The weather had held out well and we were dazzled by the water crashing onto the rocks just below us and the vista that filled our eyes. A 5 minute break turned into a 45 minute mini-hike as we clambered around the place and eventually got down to the beach. We had lunch on the other side of the bay at a huge concrete picnic table a few meters away from the crashing surf. This moment was similar to the one in Birmingham, lying on Don’s couch thinking, “Is this real? This is crazy, I can scarcely believe this sequence of events that has brought me here”. But there we were, on the side of the bay, eating our homemade sandwiches listening to the waves breaking on the beach and the calling of seagulls all around us.

Beautiful!

When we eventually set off again we were heading towards Rawene where there was a car ferry to get us across the large lake and back onto Highway 1. But we weren’t going to spend $14 doing that as we had spotted a small road that would bypass it, albeit with a few more miles into the Hi-Ace, and knew that it wouldn’t take long. The thing is with New Zealand, and Rob had warned us about this on our first day in the country, that the road signs are positioned at the junction of the roads so by the time you have read the sign you have sped past the turning and need to double-back on yourself. This had happened to us on a number of occasions, and we had vented our anger at the country’s town/road planners. You can guess where this story is going. Yup, we missed one of our turnings and so had to retrace our steps to make the correct turn. We then realised that this wasn’t the correct turn and we were somewhere completely different on the map than we had thought. So we had to double-double-back and carry on the way were going before we had turned around and ended up doing the medium-length diversion instead of the short-diversion as planned. But hey, we saved that $14 car ferry fee...

As we drove north we realised that we were nearing the town of Ahipara which is the beginning of 90 Mile Beach, but it seemed that it would be a stretch too far if we were to make it onto the beach further north (you can’t take the campervams onto the beach, wisely, and there was a road to the beach further up the coast) so we diverted and headed up past Kaitaia. We wanted to hit the beach first and then, if we had time, stop by Houhora where New Zealand’s most northern tavern could be found. We would then find a camping spot before it got dark as it was very difficult on the first night and we certainly didn’t want a repeat of that. We found the road (small gravel track) that led down to 90 Mile Beach, the thing that had brought us so far north of this beautiful country. And we were amazed. We were amazed how similar it was to Crosby beach back home. For those of you who have never been (the lucky ones) Crosby beach is a wide expanse of sand and not much else save for a few pieces of driftwood, dead seaweed and a handful of seashells. 90 Mile Beach turned out to be almost identical, but was a lot nicer for the water seemed much more blue, the sand was yellow instead of brown, there was a distinct lack of rubbish washed up on the shore and there was no gale-force cold wind rushing through your hair. Still, it was worth a visit, and we knew we would never make it all the way to the very top of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, for that would definitely be too far and cost us approximately two days more of our time.

Is this New Zealand or Crosby??

Realising that finding the tavern may also be difficult given that the light was fading (at about 5pm) we decided to find our camp site for the night instead. On the map was a large forest right next to the coast and this seemed like the best place to grab a secluded (not a romantic) plot for the night. Heading back from the beach we took a left that took us parallel with the coast and further into the forest. The road was still a gravel track, but was now covered with thick chunks of rock rather than small pieces that you could easily drive over. Down to third gear and about 30kmh at best we trundled through the forest, first with side lights on and then with dipped headlights as the night closed in around us. It felt like we had been driving for an age before we found the turning that we believed would be our best bet for a campsite. Being self-contained is very handy as you can simply park up on the side of the road if necessary and so long as you can cope with any passing traffic you are good to go. Obviously we didn’t want to park up somewhere that would get us stuck in mud as it had been raining a LOT since we had arrived, so we were keeping our eyes open for a nice rocky/gravelly area. After taking the turn and driving for another 15 minutes down the track we had seen a couple of potential spots but were holding out for one nearer the tavern so we could stop in on the next day before setting off. The next thing we saw wasn’t a rocky plot of land, far from it. It was three wild horses munching the grass by the side of the road. That explained all the horse crap everywhere. They scarpered as soon as we got near, but having never seen wild horses before it was a great feeling. The next great feeling was seeing another group further down the road, who again legged it as soon as we got near. The next feeling was not so great. Whilst looking at said horses James had identified something in the road ahead that did not please him. It was a gate. To a field. So basically we had been driving for 20 minutes up some farmer’s driveway. After a few profanities we did a “180” and reluctantly set off back down the gravelly road.

Time for a cuppa!

We came to the turning that we had passed earlier and decided this was the best place we would find and set about parking up and checking we would be ok to get out in the morning and that there was an adequate number of trees nearby to pee against. Check, and check. And that was our campsite for the night, slightly off the gravelly road, hoping that nobody would be tearing past us early in the morning or moving us on/off some irate farmer’s property. We spent the night blogging and playing cards, the latter of which James managed to “unify the belts” of Blackjack and Rummy, which was disappointing from my point of view. The weather was fresh but it was such a clear night that you could see the stars with no problem at all, none of which I could identify having only seen/recognised constellations in the northern hemisphere. I finished my glass of red wine, had one last tactical pee and constructed my bed for the night as all around me lay quiet. Apart from James sniffing and coughing in the top bed...