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.