Waipu, Dargaville, TANE MAHUTA!

11 Feb 2008

So the shipping was supposed to arrive today but it's been delayed again, mum suggested we just take off for a couple of days while they sort stuff out and we thought, well, why the hell not. Within an hour we had the awesome Honda City packed, food, clothes, tent, bug spray and we were off.

We drove up north towards Maungawhai Heads. That might be spelt wrong, but I see pete spelt maori 'mauri' up above so I'm not too concerned. Stopped for lunch on a surf beach and cruised through the town. As you can see from the pic, not only does the awesome Honda City drive us places, she is also a travelling kitchen.

Despite these awesome surf beach pics the only campsite we could find (thanks to an old dutch dame that rrrrrrollled all her rrr's) was on the estuary, so we continued up the east coast to Waipu. (said why-pooh, that 'h' is for you Dan)

Ahhh, Waipu, the campsite was just behind the first sand dunes and the waves were beautiful rollers, just big enough to catch the odd body surf and just small enough not to flip you over and smash your face into the sand. Perfect. We did nothing much but lie on this beach, we had it all to ourselves and it stretched for miles.

Happy pete!

So hot. The day. But you can make your own assumptions.

Sunset in Waipu, I am making toe circles. We slept well that night, until 5am, when pete's alarm went off in order to SEE A SUNRISE! I resisted the urge to kill him, he's just excited bless him. He wouldn't listen to my gentle reasoning that the sun doesn't rise until 6.30am at least and tore off his sleeping bag like a 6 year old on xmas morning. I took the rug, wiped the sleep from my eyes and dutifully rose from the cocoon of the tent. I am the best girlfriend ever. EVER.

This is the first picture we took of the sunrise. AT 6.30am. Just saying. This was at 6.30, we'd been out since 5am getting bitten to shit by sandflies and getting poked up the bum by tussock.

Pretty good though when it came hey?

I don't even look annoyed. best girlfriend.

That day, despite the beauty of Waipu we drove on. Unfortunately to Paihai (said pie-hear) which was pretty yuck touristy if you ask me. Somewhere on this drive Chris called and told me that Mel and Mike had got engaged, very chuffed. So Paihai wasn't for us and the beach was all just flat no-wave fun so we made a excellent decision to bomb across to the West Coast. No pics of this, big drive, lots of singing, bit of rain, zoomed through Opononi and carried on to find a bed in Dargaville. In Dargarville, said um, dargarville, we stayed in an old converted train carriage. The guy that ran the joint was no word of a lie exactly like the creepy people hunter from Wolf Creek. Same cowboy-esk hat, same missing teeth, same accent (australian backward) same sweaty skin. Only difference was he was super nice. Thankfully.

ONly thing we did photo was when we stopped off through the Waipoua Foreset (I think) to see the largest Kauri tree (Nz native, beautiful) His name is Tane Mahuta, he's 13.9meters in girth and 52 meters high. The story goes that (and please excuse slight name adaptations) Ranginui the sky father and Pohutawhaka...something the earth mother used to be right up close to each other, then tane mahuta was born and he grew up tall and pushed them apart and allowed all the beauty of the earth to exist. We should all thank Tane Mahuta for that I think.

Pete and Tane Mahuta. Respect.

Driving out through the forest. Pete said it was like rally driving. I just felt a bit sick.

So down to Pakiri Beach where Clare had taken me horse riding once before, I had been too chicken to canter and was determined to rectify this. Pete was scared, they gave him a big old brute called Sparky, very gentle. He kept his nose right up my horse Bailey's butt the whole trek and wouldn't budge, if only I could train Pete so well. HA

I was given Bailey, he was an old grumpy and extremely lazy stallion. He liked to eat, he like to plod, he hated one of the only other 5 horses with us and tried to bite things (people) whenever 'morrow' (arch enemy) came near. I like horses alot. I didn't like Bailey very much. I got one good gallop out of him, at the very end. The lady taking us said he was probably only galloping cause he knew we were reaching home where there was food.

Me and Bailey at the end of our ride, he looks as though he doesn't think much of me either. Pretty though isn't he.

I had to take this photo, driving back from Pakiri and stopping for coffee, I turned to look at pete and thought he looked like he'd been living and breathing nz his whole life, bare feet, cap, boardies, tan, thank god he's still got his accent.

Waitakere Ranges

Here are some photos of our first real New Zealand walk, we will add explanations when we have a chance!!

So it's been a while since we posted these and no explanation which is a shame cause it was an awesome day and I learnt much about pete's tramping abilities.

Ben took us out to the Waitak's (Waitakere Ranges, big National Park) an hours drive from Beachhaven to do his 'special' off track new years walk. He said wear good shoes cause there's some climbing involved and you will get wet. Bearing in mind the biggest 'tramp' pete and I have done in the last 3 years was over to Ruislip Lido and back, sometimes we'd get a bit muddled for direction and on the odd occasion stung by poison ivy, to say we weren't prepared was an understatement. Big bloody understatement.

Pete had on his addidas shells and I my chucks, in all fairness our walking shoes were still stuck in shipping, but I had no excuse to be wearing a summer skirt, that was just dense.

It started out simple enough, an uphill walk to look out over Kare Kare Beach on the West Coast.

pete, lou, me...
hiking down to the swamp
looks pretty easy right? Still is...

This is the point we should have realised we were inadequately prepared. That sign says '...for experienced trampers only' It's not joking, but doesn't everyone think they're an experienced tramper when we spend all our lives walking?
So at this point we've moved onto the river, walking straight up the middle of the baby rapids. Not so bad but pete didn't grow up on beaches and rivers, leaping from rock to rock ben had soon left us for dust, lou was scrambling up close behind him turning back only to explain that she called him 'ben the billy goat' like that was to ease our inadequacies. I turned back to watch pete enter the river and his leg trembled from hip to foot as he tentatively struck out for the first rock. I felt panicked for him but he was game and we ploughed on. By the time we got to the first water fall, pete was starting to look pretty nimble. Ben stripped off and jumped off the falls, we weren't going to let him be the only brave, billy goat or not.

I was the next over the edge, I think you can see my fear in the poker straightness of my body.

Pete was next, whether those arms are thrown up in gay abandon or he's just reverting to the way you jumped as a kid I'm not sure.

+ finally lou...actually, that's more the jump you do when you're a kid. A bit further up Ben and pete went in under the falls, I was too scared of the possibility of eels, I think pete wasn't scared of eels cause he didn't believe there really were any, he's really cautious of my warnings after I pretended the waves in the sand in Gisbourne were made by snakes that come up out of the ocean to slumber under the sand on the beach.

This is looking back on the pool we had to swim across with our bags held above our heads, not easy swimming in trainers and the water was fresh from the hills, icy as.

This photo doesn't do this moment justice, there was bugger all to put your feet on and we're wearing fashion trainers with no underside grip. The pool beneath us is deep and full of god knows what but in those moments it felt like it was full of eels the size of your leg that wanted to eat half your face.

We made it though, all four of us to the end of the hike, 4.5hrs I think it was in the end, not bad going. Pretty exhausting and definitely one I'd do again, with the right shoes.

Tuesday

On Tuesday morning, we had a real lazy morning as I was hoping hat we were going to get my driving license through the post... this unfortunately didn't happen, so we headed into the centre of Auckland by bus to have a look around.

The city itself is quite a small city & is nicknamed the city of sails due to the nmber of sail boats in the habour. The roads are all very wide & it is extremely clean

In the evening we met up with Clare (Amber's cousin) & her boyfriend Piet & we started to drink the night away.

We ended the night in a pool hall, which was huge & had a big Mauri on the door!

Pauanui (said Powernooee)

On Saturday morning we travelled a couple of hours out of Auckland to a place on the East coast called Pauanui, the sun was soo hot & the surf was beautiful.

We stayed at a holiday house owned by Ben's family (Amber's brother in law) with Amber's mum, sister & Ben.

On saturday we had a really relaxing time, just ate good food & relaxed on the beach.

Sunday was a bit more lively with us heading out to try & catch some clams on the beach at midday & after we failed that, we headed back to the house to pick up the wave rider (like a canoe, but you sit on top & a fishing rod to see if we could catch some local fish.

Unfortunately I sucked at both these things, so we went home empty handed :(

Monday was our last day there, so we headed to the beach with a couple of body boards & played around on them in he morning before making our way home in the 33 degree heat (luckily the car was well air-conditioned!