Advertisement
Published: April 26th 2010
Thursday, April 22nd
The day dawned overcast and rainy in Orewa. We spent most of the morning in the van making use of the good internet connection to do a few online duties before having a late, but very delicious breakfast. Before leaving Orewa we stopped to pick up a few supplies, then headed north a few kilometers to the Wenderholm Regional Park.
As we drove down the access road to the park we were taken by the beautiful autumn leaves blazing orange and yellow on the trees lining the road. We booked ourselves in, using an easy and effective telephone/envelope system. You pick up the telephone, a ranger answers, you give your details, put your cash in an envelope and drop it in the drop-box. You’re given the code for the combination-lock to the campground and that’s it! We found a secluded camping spot and settled in for a quiet day.
Lunch was samies on the bench next to the Boesman. A friendly duck came for a feed as well. We gave her a bit of bread and put out some water for her. She loved it and ate until she was almost asleep on her feet.
After cleaning and repacking our clothes compartment we took full advantage of the drizzly weather to spend the rest of the afternoon holed up in bed reading. When dinner time came around we cooked up a curry and enjoyed it outside on the bench with a cuppa. Then we watched a movie, read a bit and fell asleep to the sound of silence, broken every so often by the sound of a Morepork (an owl whose call sounds like it’s asking for “more pork”).
Today's highlights:
1. Great brekkie.
2. Beautiful and quiet camping spot.
3. Lazy afternoon reading.
Thought for the day:
How quickly and subconsciously we end up chasing our own will! It's amazing how "me" orientated we humans are. Friday, April 23rd
The condensation on the inside of the Boesman's windows was a sure indication that the nights were getting cold again. When we woke the sun was shining and we enjoyed our breakfast in the warm rays.
Then we went for a hike up and around the park. We saw our first North Island Robin. These cute little guys used to be extinct here, but after their reintroduction in the 90's they're
flourishing. We're used to seeing the Robin scratching around the ground, but this one was tapping its foot on the leaves. The tap was so fast it was almost a vibration. We assume this was done to get the insects to come up. Very cute! We spent a while sitting at the top of the track snacking and enjoying the great view. There was a whole bunch of little Fantails, Tuis and Kingfishers diving around, hunting for a few snacks of their own.
Back at camp we had lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon filling in a marriage questionnaire for Konrad's counseling studies. It was interesting to delve into our relationship and we felt a little guilty that we were so happy together. For a moment we were worried that we were lying to ourselves, but some soul searching revealed that, yes, we were indeed as happy as two people could be together.
Unfortunately for us a couple of very loud Israeli's came to the camp area and for some unknown reason chose to camp only meters from us. Why they chose to do that when they had all the rest of the camp area
to choose from we couldn't guess. Maybe they were worried about wild animals? Or vicious local tribes? It was anyone's guess. Needless to say we didn't appreciate the intrusion of our peace and quiet.
Today's highlights:
1. Spotting our first North Island Robin.
2. Nice hike.
3. Dinner and a movie.
Saturday, April 24th
The couple camping right on our rear end was so loud that we had to go for a walk just after breakfast. Staying might've seen us saying something to them and spoiling our day.
When things settled down a bit we were sitting outside enjoying a cuppa when a lady came by asking if we had jumper cables as her car wouldn't start. Unfortunately we don't own a set (which is rather silly on our part seeing as we have an automatic van and like to camp in secluded spots). We did offer to help run-start her car if it came to that. She's a very funny lady called Jenny. She's in her 50's (we think) and never seem to stop talking, jumping from subject to subject without notice.
Soon Jenny was back to take us up on our offer. We tried
to run-start her car but had no luck. We were heading into Orewa for a bit of shopping so we offered her a ride to her local garage. On the way she told us about the “one year general camping pass” you can buy from the Auckland Regional Council. It's cheap and allows you to camp in 24 of the 25 Regional parks for most of the year. This would really help our budget so we decided to try and get a pass first thing Monday.
We waited while Jenny spoke with the mechanics, but they couldn't help her immediately. At her request we dropped her at her favourite cafe while we went shopping and had lunch by the beach. When we were done we picked her up again and returned to camp where we read the paper (a very adult thing to do) and enjoyed a few beers.
Soon we felt like doing something so we went for a walk down to the boat ramp and the beach. Here we found the sand to be very soft. In one area we sank almost up to our knees in the wet airy sand. This must be what quicksand
is like, except that this quicksand isn't much deeper than 50cm. We had a blast struggling up and down this area, looking like tourists who'd never seen quicksand before (which is exactly what we are).
Back at camp we had a snack dinner by the light of the moon, then watched a movie. We love the regional parks.
Today's highlights:
1. Helping Jenny and learning of the camping pass.
2. Playing in the quicksand on the beach.
Thought for the day:
It's interesting how helping others bring its own rewards.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.106s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0561s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
thetravelbugtribe
The travel bug tribe
Hey F&T, You are right about the Robin, it is vibrating the ground to get the insects to come up, we saw it a lot on Tiritiri Matangi. Do you plan to paddle from Wenderholm to Puhoi? Its a paddle we'd like to do, picking the right tide of course, stopping for lunch at the Puhoi pub before kayaking back down the river.