Day # 174 - 184

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Otautu Bay Farm Camp is where we have been parked up for 4 days. The camping ground sits right on the beach and our camp site has a great room with a view. This is a big camp which extends across the estuary to some nice farmland up the back. It is also a good place to launch the boat with only a short distance out to the outer islands for a day’s fishing. Our first day out looked pretty promising and we managed to get our limit in the bin in less than 3 hours. The rest of the days were a bit harder but perhaps it had to do with the fishing trawlers that had been working out there. It’s been really good fun and I just wonder how long it would take to get bored of it. Of course it is much better if the fish are biting😊.



Day 177 – 179

Boat packed up and we have headed over the Coromandel hills to Matarangi. There a literally hundreds of houses/bache’s with only about 300 permanent residents, but then over the holiday period the population swells to well over 7000. The beach here is stunning and great for swimming.

Matarangi Coastal Walk (or Rings Beach Track) we stumbled across when we were out for a bike ride one day (looking for the perfect house for when we win lotto). The track leads from the Western End of Matarangi. The track is classed as a back country walking track and is about 4.8kms long (about 2hrs to walk the loop). It leads up to several lookout points which give you great views over Matarangi, then from the top the track narrows with some steeper sections dropping down to Wetland before heading up and over to Rings Beach. The idea was to have a picnic lunch and a swim but the large dumpers rolling in put end to the swimming thought here. So a quick lunch in the sun on the beach then a small trek back up the hill and over to Matarangi where the waves were smaller and the water was surprisingly warm.

On our last day here we drove out to Whangaparoa and walked over to New Chums Beach. This is very much an untouched paradise as there is not a bach or house to be seen. A few people around today and I expect a very busy place in the summer (perhaps that’s why Lance thought this place was just ok?). No swimmers out today as the swell rolling in looked fairly dangerous. There are a few NZ Dotterel birds nesting here, I even managed to get a photo of one standing still. Which I have to say is not easy when they skitter around trying to distract us as we walk up the beach. The track over to New Chums beach is ideally done around low tide. There is a stream to cross and a section of rocks around the coast you need to walk to get there. A shame the sun wasn’t shining when we were here but it was just one of those days. On return back to Matarangi we stopped so I could take a photo of the sleeping giant.



Day 180- 183

Well we are now parked up in Whitianga and I am signing off for the year. It’s time to spend the festive season with Family and Friends. We will be back online early January as we start our next adventure and make our way down to the South Island. Keep safe and enjoy the Holiday Season😊.

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Comments

[Mumtraveller]

NZ memories
Your photos are so beautiful and make me want to return to NZ ... Maybe in 2016 I can get there . Thank you.