Kaitaia to Papakura
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We managed to get a reasonable start in the morning considering we both really wanted to sleep another hour or so. We had to stop for some groceries though so it was still 9:30 by the time we were heading north. We had ourselves our standard road meal — a ham and cheese sandwich with ketchup and apple — for breakfast along the way.
The day was overcast. The scenery was similar to yesterday but very pretty. More rolling green hills with cows and sheep with the occasional view out to sea which was a bit different. Along the way we passed the farm of someone who apparently had some pretty strong political views and expressed them through signs and home made art. Check the photos to see what I mean.
The best part of the road was the single lane bridges, which appeared out of nowhere with very little warning. There were three or four of them. We’d be cruising along at 100 km/hr and hello, single lane bridge. Hope nobody is coming. The best one was on a blind curve. We came around a corner and were on the bridge. I guess they rely heavily on the fact that there isn’t much traffic.
We made it to Cape Reigna, the last 20 km on gravel road. But the gravel road was very smooth and in our new luxury vehicle not a big deal. It’s nice to not have everything in the back rattling to the floor.
Cape Reigna is sacred to the Maori as the point where spirits leave the earth and go wherever it is Maori go when they die. It’s also sacred to the maritime community as the place where the lighthouse is. The lighthouse itself is pretty small. The original light was 1000 watts and was powered by a diesel generator. You could see it 26 nautical miles out to sea. But it’s been replaced by a solar powered 50 watt light bulb. But you can still see it 19 miles out to sea, which is pretty impressive for a light you can hardly read by at home.
The great meeting of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific was not particularly exciting. All the action is underwater I guess. Supposedly there is a big up swell and it’s a big feeding ground for fish so there’s lots of things swimming around down there. But when we were there the whole place was flat as a pancake. Very very calm.
Off to the west there was a path leading down to a beach. We walked down it a ways. A fairly steep descent and after about 15 minutes and a view of the next 15 minutes of steep descent down to the beach, we decided we better turn back. We only had about an hour and a half to spend up at the Cape if we were going to get back to Auckland by the end of the day. We still have a long drive to Wellington to make tomorrow. So anyway, back up the hill. It’s pretty obvious we’ve been sitting on our butts most of this trip.
On the way back out, we took a little side road down to a beach on the eastern side. I don’t remember the name and it’s not on the map. Suffice it to say it started with a T and had a bunch of p’s and vowels in it. Topopouto or something like that. A river flowed into the ocean at one end. A very pretty spot. (I finally looked this up on Google Maps in 2024. The place was called Tapotupotu. I was pretty close with my guess.)
So back down the road towards Kataia. The sun had come out by this point and made the views a little better. We made one brief stop at 90-mile beach. A somewhat misnamed beach that runs up the eastern side of the tip of New Zealand. Misnamed because it’s only about 56 miles long. Only. That’s a pretty long beach. You can drive up it too. We wanted to, but once again the time factor reared its head. Just as well. We’d probably still be stuck in the sand up there somewhere.
On the way back down, we decided to take the tourist road that we skipped yesterday. This goes more along the eastern edge versus cutting across like the gorge road did. They meet up again in Kawakawa so we figured we could finally get a look at the famous toilets.
The road was nice but the non-tourist one was just as nice. A few more ocean views but no gorge views. But we got to see both of them this way. The kids were just getting out of school so we saw a lot of them streaming from the buses. The buses are not the typical yellow buses we’re used to. These look like tour coaches. The big white ones with the seating high up and the driver sitting down lower. Pretty plush. Of course, these kids are probably driving 50km to school too. They seemed largely Maori, or at least dark-skinned. In general the population up in the north does not seem to be a white-majority.
We went by Doubtless Bay, Cable Bay and the Bay of Islands, mostly viewing them from the car. At Paihia, we stopped at an Internet cafe long enough to get the phone number of the inter-island ferry. I called for reservations while Les went and got some pictures of a large-masted sailing ship and the Maori sculptures that were near by.
We hooked up with the main highway again in Kawakawa but not before stopping to view (and use) the famous Hundertwasser toilet. Since we had the brochure now and knew what to look for, we were able to finally spot the thing on Main Street. I must say it’s a nice little public toilet as public toilets go. Many cities could learn a thing or two from how Kawakawa did theirs, but come on. World famous? Ah well. We took a bunch of pictures, which is a bit weird while you’re doing it. But we weren’t the only ones.
The other thing Kawakawa is famous for is there’s a steam train that runs down the middle of the street twice a day. It was originally there to run coal from the mine to wherever the coal went. But after the mine ran out, they ran it for tourists. And still do I guess, although we didn’t see it.
From there it was basically a rerun of yesterday in reverse. Headed back down the same road to Auckland and got there just as it got dark. We got a good view (but not a picture) of the Auckland skyline as we went by, including an excellent view of the neon blue lit Skytower which definitely looks like something out of Star Wars when lit that way. We went past Auckland, to avoid the traffic in the morning and ended up in a place called Papakura at the Colonial Motel. We seem to be improving both the number of single beds as well as the space between them each night we’re here. We now have 4. It was all they had and we were really tired and didn’t feel like looking for another one.
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