Ahipara --> Cape Reinga --> Paihia

We finally did a bit of work at Ahipara the day before we left.  We cleaned out the chimney and fireplace and spent about 3 hours or so splitting wood for it.  4 hours of work is not a bad price for 8 nights accommodation. As it was raining the last 4 days there we did not have a chance to do much outside of going to the beach a couple more times, eat some good food, catch a sunset, and watch the Champions League final(at a ridiculous 6:30 am).

Sunset at Shepard's Bay

Delicious Curry

Accommodation for 8 nights

On Sunday we left for Cape Reinga and Tapotupotu campground nearby.  On the way up to the cape we stopped at a kauri wood gallery; if you need a new couch they have one at a reasonable NZ$55,000.  Afterwards we stopped at Te Paki Stream to wander around the huge sand dunes at the north end of 90 Mile Beach.  After we had hung around there for about an hour we headed up to Cape Reinga and wandered down to the light house to take some pictures.

Huge Dunes

Sinking in

Dunes and Ocean

Path to the Lighthouse

Distances to the rest of the world

Tree Stairs

New Favorite Chair

Kauri scraps...

We then headed to the campground and walked around on the beach for a bit before dinner.   Monday we hiked over to Cape Reinga from our campground which took about 5 hours with stops for lunch and to hang out on a small, secluded beach about 2/3 of the way to the cape.  We spent the afternoon searching for shellfish for bait so we could go fishing this morning, but could not find a single one on the beach.  As it turns out that was fine as it started raining at some point during the night and continued raining with high winds, and for a bit sleet and hail,  until we got almost to our next location; Paihia at the Saltwater Lodge.  We moved it up a day due to the weather; we had been intending to camp another night somewhere on the coast between the Karikari peninsula and Paihia.

Sunset from the campground

Snack.  Yum

Campground from the start of the hike

Heading to the Cape

Heading Back

Waipu --> Karikari penninsula --> Ahipara

the last week or so.

We have left Waipu.  We spent the last few days in Waipu going to a little market they have on sundays, going for a long walk on Lang's Beach, and visiting a neat little chocolate factory called Bennet's.  The last full day we spent there we went out fishing with Douglas, the owner's son who is helping to run the Clansman, and Peter, who is a great guy we met at the Clansman.  We went out to a beach around 10km from Waipu and put out a Kontiki.  It is basically a little device that drags out a line, with up to 25 hooks on it, out a kilometer or so into the ocean so you can fish a bit deeper without having to get into a boat.  They also taught us how to find shellfish called tuatuas on the beach so we will be getting Weslie some at some point.  Our last night there Claire made us some mexican food which consisted of jalapeno poppers, spanish rice, beans with jalapenos, chile con carne, and also some fried chicken, which was very nice of her and a good last meal there.

The kontiki

                                Mexican Food!                                        Bennett's chocolates

From Waipu we went north to the Karikari Peninsula to stay at Peter's place for a a few days.  The place was nice; it has a great view of Doubtless Bay and is only a couple minutes from an almost private beach, of which there appear to be quite a few, down a little path.  We spent a couple hours a day on the beach both fishing and just hanging out.  Had very little luck in the fishing department as we only caught one snapper and it was slightly too small to keep; this is mostly down to not going at the right times I suppose as we did get quite a few bites on our last trip down there.  Unfortunately it did rain quite a bit so we were unable to explore the area as much as we'd have liked to; in particular one beach area on the way into the peninsula that we had intended to go fish, but all in all a great little place to stay.

 Doubtless Bay from Peter's house

 Attempting to catch lunch. 

After Peter's we came east and are now in Ahipara at the Ahipara Holiday Park. We have been here since Saturday and have yet to do any work as the park owner was out in Wellington until Monday night and has not had anything for us to do in the last 2 days since his return.  Which is fine as any outside work is sort of out of the question at the moment as it is pouring rain and has been more or less for the last 6+ hours.  So far we have spent the time here mostly walking on the south end of 90 Mile Beach, and have covered about an hour north and south of where we are on it.  The water is a bit colder as it is the west coast and no longer the Pacific, and the waves are noticeably larger than what we have come across so far so we can still hear them at the holiday park which is about a 5-7 minute walk from the beach. 

 Our little (free) cabin

the common room, home to some fierce competitions.

 90 mile beach

 We were offered a free surf lesson yesterday but it was raining and Weslie has learned before so we opted not to.  If the opportunity comes up again in the next few days I may give it a go.  We shall see.
We also are planning on taking a bus tour to Cape Reinga, the northern tip of the country, weather permitting.

Whangarei to Waipu

Hi there.
Got a couple weeks to catch up on, sorry.  We finished up our first HelpX last Wednesday, it was a lot of fun.  Very easy. just 2 hours of work a day for the kitchenette cabin. Most of the time our 2 hours consisted of watching their kids, which was an adventure for me, if anyone knows me.  I even  changed a diaper for the first time.  Gross.  We met some cool people at the campground, and it was a great place to start our HelpX'ing'. Lots of hikes in the area, including a 3 hour one up a mountain then down the other side to an amazing beach, all to ourselves.

Right now we are in a town called Waipu, just 30 minutes south of our last place.  The town was settled by Scottish pioneers and they celebrate their Scottish heritage throughout the area.  There's an interesting museum and a couple of antique shops, other than that, not much to see.  We are doing 2 weeks at a 12 room hotel called the Clansman, it has a small bar and restaurant, all run by a woman named Claire and her family.  The weather the last week has been super rainy so we have just been relaxing and taking our time exploring the region.  Our jobs include servicing and cleaning the rooms, and doing dishes after meals.  4-5 hours per day, and we get a room with shared bathrooms, and all of our meals.  Plus we're always offered beers from the bar.  Not too bad.  The food is very typical english/nz hearty food.  Dinners include meat, potatoes, peas, carrots, gravy, so if you are familiar with our low-carb diet that we were on recently... yeah... not good for that.  But tasty, and free. :)

Below are photos of some of the things we've seen and places we've been in the last couple weeks-- click on the links for info of where we went.

New Zealand's only oil Refinery

 Kauri wood industry museum

 Free Beer. :)

 Alpaca farm

 Farmland

   Waipu Cove

New Zealand is expensive.  If it's not made here it has to be imported of course. And tourist-y things aren't cheap either, for us to stay in just your average roadside motel would cost us around $120/night. Hostel beds are around $25 each for a dorm room. A beer at a pub can easily be $8, movie rentals are around $5/night, gas is $7/gallon, a 12 oz latte is $4, and we saw a can of refried beans at the grocery store, $6.  That's why we are going the HelpX route. It's also called wwoofing, which mostly includes farms/homestays. It's awesome being able to get off the tourist track a bit, while not having to worry about budgeting for a place to stay.  We'll definitely need to get jobs at some point though.  A beer at a restaurant is $8.00 usually and the average dinner if you eat at a restaurant is at least $60 for two.  Which is why Chris hasn't let us eat dinner at a restaurant since we've been here.  Lol... I haven't even had fish yet except for the 3 lbs of fresh mussels I got at the grocery store for $2, and the yummy fish and chips that Claire made for us the other night. I may try to find a cafe job at one of the next places we stay at. Minimum wage here is $13.50.  Chris is probably going to be looking for an engineering job so we can stay here a little more long-term, but we're going to travel a bit first.  

After we leave Waipu, we'll be camping for a night or two, then staying at the holiday home of a man we met at the hotel bar last week.  Seems legit.  He's a regular here, stays at the hotel a couple days a week as he travels for work. He offered his home up north for us to stay for a few days, says his family hardly gets up there anymore.  Kiwis are so amazingly welcoming, they're interested to know where you're from, why you're here, and are very friendly.  So we'll stay there, it's overlooking the ocean towards the top of the North Island.  Next post should be after that, when we go to a holiday park in Apihara for a week.