Diving at Poor Nights

Our first early start this morning. Down at the boat at 9am and a rather choppy ride out to the islands. I was dreading entering the water this time of year but with a 7mm wetsuit it was fine and I could have happily spent most of the day in the sea. The view was stunning. No mater how large your big screen TV, no amount of watching Nation Geographic can prepare you for actually being there among hundreds of fish darting and diving or just hovering in the ocean currents sheltering in the underwater caves sheltering from the gannets diving from the cliffs above. It was one of my most memorable days ever and i can still close my eyes and see the fish swarming around me.

Tutukaka

Left Waipu Cove and drove north to Tutukaka. Here we plan to go out to the Poor Nights Islands, 'the best sub-tropical diving in the world'. We found a delightful camping ground at the outer edge of the township. Nestled on the edge of town with one side a working farm. As usual this time of year there were few other campers so we had the place to ourselves.

We booked our trip to the poor Nights for tomrrow. We chose to snorkle rather than dive as I don't have a diving cert yet (but after seeing what was there I will be getting one).

Waipu Cove (day 5)

Despite weather predictions of extreme cold and even snow down to 400m we woke to another almost cloudless Northland day. A lazy morning then a walk on the beach where a group of friends were fishing Maori style (with a little new Sea Horse technology). The traditional style is to use a float with hook attached (Kontiki fishing). The float uses the off-shore wind to drag the line out for hundreds of meters into deeper water. The new motorised version uses a battery operated float to drag the line out into deep water so is less reliant on the whim of the weather. Their first haul was just one small fish, but second haul closer to dusk, produced 5 schapper (and 8 yesterday). The great fishing is largely the result of the marine reserve at Goat Island, a few km south. The skies today were heavy with large cumulus clouds but the threatened (and predicted) rain never happened. High winds in the evening butteted the campervan but it was still warm and cosy inside.

Pakiri to Waipu Cove (day 3)

We had heard great things about Goat Island so unplugged the Campervan and headed South. Unfortunately the weather had turned by this stage and the high winds would have made the glass bottom boat trip less pleasant. We saw enough to flag it as a place to visit on our return trip. Goat Island is a marine reserve... Just next to the car park was a tree with over 20 nesting adult and chicks. This is what NZ was like before the arrival of man. A place teaming with wildlife.

By this stage the weather was really starting to get rough so we stopped in at The Sawmill Cafe for lunch. A delightful cafe with massive 1m thick beams stretching across the exposed beam ceiling.

We failed to find a suitable spot to camp at Mangawai Heads so we continued north to Waipu Cove. The camp (www.campwaipucove.com) there is again beside the beach (only 50m from our Campervan to the beach).

Pakiri (day 3)

South of the camping ground there were around 20 surfers enjoying 1m-1.5m waves. The beach stretches for miles north so there is plenty of opportunity for private swimming/sunbathing. There is also horse riding with over 100 horses available from Pakiri Horse riding www.horseride-nz.co.nz. This is a most spectacular place. I had the most successful day of photography ever.

Auckland to Pakiri (day 2)

We enjoyed breakfast at the most popular cafe in Titirangi, The Hardware Company (complete with singing Barista). After checking in our licenses in at Kea (for insurance purposes) we started our journey driving north to the Hot Pools at Parakai but the loud piped radio music destroyed any concept of a romantic private spa so we moved on up the peninsula. The next stop was Shelly beach. A lovely family beach, but not romantic and surprisingly busy even at the beginning of winter so we commenced moving on again, traveling East towards Matakana and Leigh. The lonely Planet Guide recommended the nearby Pakiri Beach as 'stunning' so we continued through to there and weren't disappointed. It is a wonderful place.

We stayed at The Pakiri Beach Holiday Park (www.pakiriholidaypark.co.nz) HHHH the camp ground is right on Pakiri Beach HHHHH. It is secure, well maintained has beautiful beach front cottages and is tiny. This is the only beachfront location I have been to where the Tui's outnumbered the seagulls.We were there on a holiday weekend and there was still lots of vacant accommodation. The Camp proprietors explained that probably all the visitors had been put off by the bad rainfall predicted for the weekend, but she explained that the regulars know that the bad weather often misses the Pakiri area, we were walking along the beach and sunbathing during the supposed 'bad weather'.

Christchurch To Auckland (day one)

A foggy day, we arrived at the airport dressed for Auckland weather, little thinking that the fog was bad enough to cancel the flight, and it wasn't. However, earlier in the day it had been and several inbound flights had not landed, so there were no planes for us to leave on. We rebooked then spent the day in our light auckland-temperature clothing shopping then lunching at The Bicycle Thief one of our favorite romantic restaurants and went to the movies at The Metro Theatre. A very romantic movie theatre and well heated as well! We had no accommodation for later that night as we were now arriving after the Camper van company closed for the day, we phoned a friend who picked up the Camper-van for us and stayed at their place overnight.

We had tried to book at The Fern Chalet and The City Bush Retreat), which both looked interesting, but both were unavailable at such short notice.