Days 80-83 - Whangarei - Paihia (bay of islands)

Trip Start Nov 29, 2007
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52
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Trip End Mar 27, 2008


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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Inside our spaceship we have a booklet with listings for all the DOC (Department Of Conservation) campsites that are dirt cheap because they are basic, they also look incredibly beautiful in the brochure. We have seen a gorgeous one on a beach a bit further north and we set off to find it. What the booklet didn't tell us was that several kilometres of the last part of the journey is on an unsealed mountain track. We weaved up and down the mountain on this gravel road and the van was bouncing about all over the place. Admittedly, the views were absolutely stunning but having followed the directions to the letter, could we find this campsite? Could we heckers like! In the end we had to go all the way back on that bumpy, windy road having wasted about an hour and several litres of fuel. We eventually made it back to the main highway and set off for the Bay Of Islands, Northland. We made it to a little place called Paihia and found an absolutely gorgeous campsite on the beach front. We paid for two nights and were lucky to get a waterside site for our van. We had only been there an hour and Dean had made a friend who took him off fishing for a few hours. Meanwhile, I busied myself sorting out the awning, tidying up and did the laundry. It's funny how you quite enjoy doing such mundane chores when you are on holiday. We are getting into a little routine now in our van, living in such a small space the trick is to keep it as tidy as possible and swept out a few times a day because of all the grass and sand we drag in from our shoes.
Dean came back full of the joys, he didn't actually catch any fish but he got loads of bites and apparantly, that's exciting enough. Dean is in heaven here, he has discovered that the beach in front of us is absolutely littered with cockles. He busied himself gathering them up and came back with a big carrier bag full which he boiled to make them open and now he has got loads of bait. That evening, the tide came in and we sat outside our van having a few drinks and Dean was fishing from his camp chair. He got loads of bites and caught two fish and an eel. The fish were too small to keep, it is illegal to keep anything under 27cm and he threw them back in. The eel was a different story, it was huge but luckily the line snapped so he didn't have to unhook it. Most fishermen agree that eels are horrible things and a nightmare to unhook because they coil themselves around you. I've never seen Dean so happy as he is here, he is loving it. I don't mind watching, it's lovely to just be sat by the seashore with my bed beside me and of course, I've got plenty of wine.
We ended up staying at the campsite for three nights as it was so nice and Dean did a lot more fishing. On our second night, two welsh girls turned up in another spaceship and we swapped our DVDs (pretty rubbish films again) but at least we have something new to watch. We also got to know his fisherman friend, Russell and his wife, Helen. They are a lovely couple from Christchurch and they offered for us to go and stay with them at their home before we leave New Zealand - we may take them up on it. The Kiwi's are such friendly people, they all talk to you and tell you "welcome to our country," they seem much friendlier that the Aussie's were (although we never met any unfriendly ones). Dean managed to catch a fish large enough to eat but I don't know what it was. He gutted and cleaned it and wrapped it in tin foil with a bit of butter, salt and pepper and put it on the barbeque. It was white fish and he really enjoyed it, I tried it but I don't really like fish at all and just had a bite. It was okay, it tasted fishy.
One evening while we were there, I was absolutely thrilled to see a possum. I had no idea they had them here, they were apparantly introduced from Australia and have wreaked havoc on the native plant life here. Needless to say, the Kiwi's don't seem to like them much, but I do. We didn't see any in Oz although I spent ages looking for them on an evening. This one just jumped into the tree straight in front of our camp when we were sat outside one night. Luckily I had my headlamp which I immediately switched on to get a good look at it (I didn't know what it was in the dark) I think it was a bit dazzled because it just sat there looking at us for a few seconds, it was so cute. They have such sweet little faces, like little teddy bears. It had a long tail and Dean thinks that was what he saw running off with our pan bag that night when we were in the Blue Mountains.
We have had a lovely time here, it is a beautiful place with fantastic views around every corner. The weather was hot and sunny most of the time but we had a few rain showers. Thankfully, our little back awning over our bed stood up to the rain and proved it's waterproof - we stayed dry.
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