A trip to the west coast…   Thursday, 21/03/2024

Last week I suddenly thought: how about a brief trip? An area that I hadn’t visited in late December/early January was the coast to the west of here. Not very far away, so perfect for say two nights away.

At weekends accommodation is still busy. So I decided to hire a car on Sunday morning and stay in a basic small chalet on Sunday and Monday night. My destination was Hokianga Harbour, a long stretch of water coming in from the sea. You might say a fjord; Wikipedia evocatively calls it “a long estuarine drowned valley”. I stayed at Rawene, which is at the tip of a small peninsular which juts out from the south about halfway up Hokianga. (I had decided that it is becoming a bit too chilly at night to enjoy camping).

Not far: it was about 130 km (roughly 80 miles) from the marina. A two-hour drive however – the road twists and winds its way through hilly farmland bordered by mountains. Ruthlessly scenic: typical New Zealand. It was well worth the visit. On Monday I drove down to Omapere, where the harbour meets the sea, walked out to the southerly point for the views up and down the coast, went down the cliff to the beach and generally wandered around. Then I drove a little way inland up a dirt road and walked through the forest to a small waterfall and then on to the top of the falls. 

On Tuesday I drove back this way, but carried on, effectively heading south down the west coast. Here there is a large kauri forest. Kauri are only found north of 38 degrees south, so only in the very northern portion of the North Island. They can reach 50 metres (170 feet) high, or more. It is typically not the most abundant tree in the forest, but dominates by protruding above the forest’s main canopy. At present kauri are threatened by Kauri Dieback Disease, which eventually kills them, so strict measures are in place to help avoid its spread – in particular spraying your footwear before and after entering the forest. It’s a great pity, because these trees can live to well over 1,000 years, and possibly as long as 2,000 years. 

The kauri does not match the heights attained by the sequoia (Californian redwood), which can reach up to 85 metres in height, but the diameter of its trunk can match them, at about 5 metres. Forests are always great places to walk, made even more so by coming across these giants. 

Further south, I stopped at Bayly’s Beach, which is 6 miles long and walked along a bit of it. From there, it was only 70 km (44 miles) back to Whangarei on the east coast – this is a very thin part of the North Island. 

Not much going on otherwise. I did have a trip with my electrical man today to the supplier of Raymarine electronic equipment to look at a newly developed screen which will be mounted outside in the cockpit and integrate with a new autopilot and the existing chart plotter and radar. This was actually interesting – I learned a number of things from being in the presence of a man who is not only expert but enthusiastic. He’s been extremely busy, but will do the necessary work in the second week of April. Next Monday we’re returning to Marsden Cove marina, where the sail guy will fit the new sails and an engineering and rigging firm will finish servicing winches, the windlass and a couple of smaller items. So all is proceeding, if slowly. And it’s getting much colder: days are sunny and reach 21 or 22 degrees, but last night the low was 7. Cold in the boat this morning!