Sunset at Ohope.
School finishes for Christmas today and it’s also my last day at work before the long Christmas (summer) holidays. we have a big road trip planned during the three weeks + that I am off work. Were heading south from Auckland for Queenstown with much planned on the way there and back.
Full to bursting, even with a roof rack and roof box.
In the evening we pack the car (a Hyundai Santa Fe sports utility vehicle and accompanying roof box) and then unpacked it again when we find that we couldn’t fit it all in. We remove load of stuff out and then re-load the car successfully !! It’s quite a challenge to pack for 5 people for a 25 day holiday (camping stuff, wet suits, body boards, surf board, etc etc) and include Christmas presents. Anyway we eventually succeeded and all systems are primed and ready !!
On Friday morning we head off and suffer our first navigational disagreement within 3 miles of the house – this does not bode well as our big trip is a mapped rather than sat nav supported.
The children are use to long road journeys and with a couple of stops the 3 hr journey to Whakatane (a costal town half way down the North Island on the east coast passes comfortably. We’re staying south of the town to Otapo where there is a long spit of land which separates the Pacific Ocean from an inland harbour.
A largely deserted Ohope Beach.
The beach on the Pacific side of the spit is 11km long. We check into the Ohope beach campsite which has direct access to the beach.
Our standard camping configuration (flag must always be flown).
Our camp consists of 2 x two-man tents (one for us and one for the girls) a collapsable table, 2 charis and 3 stools. We have two lamps, a gas cooker and the ace Tangire stove and pans (bought for me by my brother several years ago and which have come into its own in NZ), a large coolie bin and a solar shower bag (which you fill with cold water and hey presto in 3 hrs , provided there’s a bit of sun, the water is warm enough for a shower).
Cari having a not-so-warm solar shower
Whakatane is a busy little seaside town in a not-bucket and spade sort of way and backs onto ‘back country’ New Zealand. The area is a mecca for sea fishing and hunting (wild boar, deer etc) and has a great outdoor shop with all sorts of unusual out door things that you’d be unlikely to see in the UK.
En route to Whale Island.
In the bay of Whakatane is New Zealand’s only active marine volcano – White Island. We arrange to go on a powerboat trip out into the Bay and speed out to Whale Island, an extinct volcano about 2 miles off-shore. As it’s windy the sea is choppy and the journey was quite exhilarating (although Meg still managed to fall asleep somehow – woken up only when the spray from a bow wave landed on her !)
Hair challenges on speedboat trip to Whale island.
We are given a guided tour of Whale Island and spot sea lions and various marine birds before speeding back to Whakatane harbour !!
Ohope fun.
Back to the campsite the children disappeared off to play with newly made friends for much of the afternoon. In the evening we go ‘bodyboarding’ in the sea before toasting marsh-mallows on a driftwood on the beach as the sun goes down.
On Sunday morning we pack the tents etc away and re-packed the car (a new record of 45 mins) and head to Taupo to meet Howell and Tracey Havard and family, friends from home who are completing their New Zealand trip and stopping off in Taupo before heading back to Auckland and flying home.
2.5 hrs, 1 stop and 7 dead possums later we arrived at De Bretts Thermal Resort and Camp Site and the relative luxury of a chalet which will be our base for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
NewZealandly 