Last Night in Whangarei

The time that I had spent in Whangarei was really amazing, and a large part of that was due to the great people I had met while I was there. It was hard to leave them but I knew that there was lots of New Zealand left to visit. And it was a lot easier knowing that they wanted me to come back. I even left my bottle of Karikari Estate Wine with them for safe keeping and a good reason to visit again before I left. The last day there we were able to have a wonderful dinner of such good New Zealand food. There is really no chance I am going to lose any weight while I am here, there is just too much to try. And desserts are quite a specialty, we had 4 I think just for this one night, including some fejoa ice cream which is amazing. For my final treat I got to take a ride in the Doretti that they had completely restored. March and April were really great months up north but I am off to spend May and June at the very bottom of the South Island.   

Mangawhai

  My last day in Whangarei I traveled down to Mangawhai to do the Mangawhai Heads walk with a couple friends. The walk can only been done at low tide if you do part of the walk on the beach and then come back along the top of the cliffs. We decided to do the beach first to enjoy the view from the top looking back while we were walking.

 

Along the way we got to check out some low tide sea creatures that had been left behind.

 

Parts of the walk were mostly over rocky parts under the cliffs that were covered in broken sea shells. I had never seen so many all in one place!

 

We could see the cliffs we would be on top for the second half of the walk and I really don't think you can have a bad view on this track no matter what direction you do it.

 

You know that you have reached the end and are ready to climb the cliffs when you get to walk through a sea arch! It was really an amazingly rough part of the coast.

 

It took awhile to get climbed up from the beach but this was the view you were rewarded with once you made it to the top. There were a LOT  of stairs to climb to get there though!

 

I found the way that trees grew sideways off cliffs a little bit fascinating.

We made it back just in time as the weather was starting to get a bit rough looking. Our reward for the walk was brunch at Bennett's Chocolates of Mangawhai. The food was amazing and they have some pretty great chocolates there as well. 

 

The chocolate shop portion is filled with things like this chocolate shell holding a variety of sea themed chocolates and a huge display case of pretty much every type of chocolate you could imagine all made right there in Mangawhai. I even picked up a few chocolates to send back home to my parents.

Bream Head Smuggler's Bay Walk

The afternoon of ANZAC Day was beautiful so John Jeanette and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went out to explore Smuggler's Beach and the walk around the Busby Head point.

 

 

We didn't take on Mount Manaia but it was a pretty backdrop for our walk.

 

The refinery was even visible across the opening of the harbor off of Woolshed Bay. We walked around Busby Head via Home Point to see the gun emplacement on our way around.

 

This is a pukeko bird and was very common all over New Zealand.

 

Smuggler's Bay had two of the most beautiful beaches. One was a sand beach and the other was a pebble beach.

 

The weather was beautiful for the walk and given my time was nearly up in Whangarei before heading south for the winter I enjoyed every bit of the sunshine.

We drove back the long way around to get a view of the heads and the harbor from the hills on the way out. There is just no mistaking the Whangarei Bream Heads.

Sneaking away for an afternoon with Jeanette

My last week in Whangarei Jeanette and I snuck away for an afternoon and visited a little local waterfall. It was actually pretty impressive that this trail and waterfall were tucked away right in town.

 

Both of us were impressed with the big boulders along the trail all covered with moss. 

 

The thicker parts were just a mini garden growing on the boulders.

 

Along with the very colorful mushrooms and fungus growing. I have seen several of them and every time it still makes me think of Alice in Wonderland.

 

 The boulders along the stream were fluted like the ones up in Wairere Boulders but apparently they are not limestone. I just couldn't help but see this area with the boulders and stream and woods and think it would have been an amazing spot to have right in your backyard as a kid.

 

 

At the end there was this beautiful little waterfall in the trees. It was really nice to watch the fall down on these rocks but up at the top it was even better.

You could just sit on these rocks up at the top and watch the pretty still pool and then the drop down to the second pool for hours. The water was a deep green color and so still, it just felt peaceful to be near it. 

We decided that these two ducks had picked a pretty great spot to call home.

After a little peace at the waterfall we decided to check out another local waterfall.



Apparently this is not impressive at all for what this waterfall normally looks like. I told Jeanette that she just should have acted like this was how it always was because coming from Nebraska it doesn't take much of a waterfall to impress me, I never would have thought anything less of it!

Heading back we went by this lovely display of country New Zealand in a single photo: your "local" or local pub out in the country complete with a group obviously celebrating a successful hunting trip. 

 

Nearby was where several generations of Jeanette's family had lived and the site of the Pa, or Maori village that was nearby. It reminded me a lot of how there are so many places in Nebraska that my parents know the past generations who have ranched where and how people use to live close to where they were born. I think it is becoming less and less common in the US but it is still generally what you find here in New Zealand. This drive use to lead to Jeanette's family's farm and featured some of the great stone fences that were so common in the area.

 

The day was great and really showed just how different of an experience I am getting from just coming to New Zealand on a holiday. I have gotten to be friends with some really great Kiwis and have loved getting to learn more about the real culture of New Zealand not just the places the guidebooks tell you that you should see. But the guidebooks are right about how great the Kiwis are, they really do love making sure that everyone that visits has an amazing experience.