Day 83 - Paihia - Whatawhiwhi

Trip Start Nov 29, 2007
1
53
70
Trip End Mar 27, 2008


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Where I stayed
DOC Campsite
(Sydney hotels)

Flag of Australia  ,
Friday, February 15, 2008

What can I say about Whatawhiwhi? Well, it's small, I think the top ten holiday park is the only thing here. It has a beautiful beach in a little bay and the view over the bay as we drove in was stunning. The water is a beautiful colour - pure turquoise. I wasn't feeling too great today, I had a bad headache I couldn't get rid of so Dean went fishing when we got there, while I went back to sleep for a few hours. While he was on the beach, he saw some Mauri peoople swimming out to sea with nets. When they dragged the nets back in, they were chock-a-block full of little swordfish. He couldn't believe how many there were in the nets. They are not allowed to fish in this way and they very quickly moved off after hurriedly packing the fish into boxes and then into vans. Dean didn't catch anything after that so came back to camp to tell me about it.
After a sleep, I was feeling much better and the weather was hot and sunny so I sunbathed and read for a bit and later we had a barbeque. The New Zealand beef is so tasty, we both had steak with some stir-fried vegetables. It's a lovely little campsite but sadly, their internet wasn't working, I have a lot of catching up to do. We discussed where we should go next over a few drinks later that evening. We have already decided that we should try to spend more time on the South island instead of splitting it 50/50 like we were going to. After conversations with Russell and Helen (and everyone else who has been there first), there is much more to do and see. We have spent a long time up North here and we need to start to make our way back down if we are going to see everything we want to see on this island. I have been reading about the Waipou Kauri Forest which is on our way back down on the opposite coast. Apparantly there is a tree that you can see there that is 2,000 years old and the trunk is 5 metres in diameter. This sounds like our bag, we like trees, so we are going to head for there tomorrow. We have seen a DOC campsite right in the forest which we expect to be mosquito-infested but it looks pretty, by a river and we have insect repellant.
Our van is bang opposite the campsite's children's playground with swings and a trampoline. We couldn't resist the temptation to have a swing and a bounce before bed. It was good fun to play. 
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