Day # 109 - 111

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I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain?...........I wanna know have you ever seen the rain Comin’ down on a sunny day?.......We have😊. Off to South Pataua today. Parked up near the footbridge that takes you across to North Pataua (If you want to drive there by road it’s about 52 kms). The weather was not that inviting but we chucked our jackets on and followed the estuary up to the Pataua Island Scenic Reserve. From here you can walk through to a pretty little deserted ocean beach.



Day # 110

Awoke to blue skies………...yippee. So, on our bikes we crossed the Pataua Footbridge to North Pataua. The ocean beach on this side is about 2.4kms long and at the Southern end is where the Pataua estuary runs out to sea. A fair bit of water flows through this small gap, you would get sucked out to sea pretty fast on and outgoing tide if you happened to fall in. Beautiful spot though. Heading further North on our bikes we followed the road and mangroves till we started to get to the serious hills taking us back to Whangarei. Then bailed and headed back to the Motorhome.

Then off to Ocean Beach (Whangarei Heads) for our final stop for the day. Now this is a seriously nice white sandy ocean beach. After a quick flick of the coin we opt to do the walk the track up to the WII Radar Station. A steady climb straight up from the beach with no real breaks, had me thinking I real didn’t feel like doing this today. But fantastic views are always a good incentive.



Day # 111

The weather forecast for today was not supposed to be too flash. I had really wanted to do the Mt Manaia walk so we packed up early in hope that we could get up the track with the sun still shining. We were not disappointed in fact the whole day was pretty spectacular. Mt Manaia stands 420 metres above sea level. This mountain was created by volcanic activity about 20 million years ago. The rock formations jutting out from this mountain are quite impressive. The climb up is a little tuff and just for your information there are 1100 wooden steps to climb (yes we counted). Well actually I got 1099 and Lance got 1101…..so we split the difference. The views up here are out of this world, so yes this is a must do if you are in the area.

You know what they say about making hay when the sun shines. Well we also wanted to do the Bream Head Scenic Reserve walks. So yes we took our weary legs and walked a loop from Urquharts Bay over to Smugglers Bay then up to Busby Head then around to the WII Gun emplacements. What a great walk with the most stunning scenery. This track is well maintained with a few climbs but totally worth it.

What a very tiring but fantastic day, we couldn’t have asked for more.

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