~2014 The Year of Adventure~: Thursday Walking Group Trip to Bland Bay

This was the end of a pretty big week for me in Whangarei. The last week of March I was finally able to find work through the temp agency in town. I did an inventory stock take one evening and started working as a receptionist at a local electrical company. I have to laugh because the whole first day answering the phone I mispronounced the name of the company and not one person corrected me! But I did enjoy working and I of course could use the extra money for my upcoming travels.

So after a very productive start to the week I felt very good about taking Thursday to go with the walking group up north. The walk was on Bland Bay but the bay is really anything but bland. It took quite a little drive up to the area along the road to Russell which was really hilly and winding. People in New Zealand can't imagine falling asleep while driving, its because you are constantly driving twisting crazy roads that don't give you a chance to get bored let alone sleepy. They joke that roads like this are for real drivers, not the straight level things we have.

We actually started the walk on the Whangaruru Harbor side of the peninsula that had a few homes around it. There were even some that the only way you can reach them is to drive on the beach at low tide or go by boat. Sounds like a pretty good way to make sure no one just drops by and interrupts your quiet weekend.

The walk took us out and up to the high point of the headland area and then around went around on the top.

This gave us the view of a couple sea caves and some islands nearby.

But the view was also pretty great back towards the campground on the harbor.

Getting back up and over required a lot of steps, there had to be at least 30 of these little sets of stairs!

I liked how different this rough and rocky coast was from the sandy beach we had been on the week before.

The view over Bland Bay

I have been trying to get a good picture of the little fantail birds that fly around you when you are out walking but this is so far the best I have managed. They fly around eating the bugs that you disturb as you are walking and will show off a lot.

On this walk I got to experience a not so fun first... my first wasp sting. I was also so lucky as to have the wasp sting my on my inner thigh while I was walking. It felt grrreeaat! But on the good side, I didn't have an allergic reaction and we did make it back to the beach were we started from.

On the way back we also stopped at The Gallery and Café at Helena Bay Hill. It was a beautiful place that had a sculpture garden and Lilly pad pond.