Levin, Otaki, Waikanae Beach

The last 2 days have been amazing - we're parked at the mouth of the river at Waikanae Beach where freedom camping is allowed for motorhomes for 24 hours only with a maximum of 4 vehicles at any one time. It's beautiful here with the river, beach, wetlands and little lakes with black swans and their cygnets, geese, ducks, tuis and other birdlife in abundance, probably because of the proximity to Kapiti Island which is of course a bird sanctuary.

Paraparaumu 

 We have a wonderful view of the whitebaiters lining the river and they seem to be catching plenty. Bought a margarine container full, probably 500 gms, from a shy Maori man last night for $40 which I was very happy with. It probably would have cost $100 from the shop. He said he was going to put the money in the bank so he could use it towards celebrating his 58th birthday next month.

Eaten within an hour!

It was raining yesterday when we arrived in Waikanae and were having our lunch in the Countdown carpark but it started to clear by the time we arrived at our picturesque little spot (wonder if we should try breaking the rule and spend 2 nights here?!). So we hopped on our bikes and rode the whole of the Kapiti Coast cycle route which goes from here to the other side of Paraparaumu - a really nice ride but not that far so we supplemented it with another great ride along the river before circling back to our campsite. It was really nice to be back on the bikes after all the golf we have been playing - I haven't yet told you that we played 36 holes on Friday at Levin as the day was so calm compared to what we have been having and the course was pretty flat and enjoyable. We ended up staying there 2 nights and then moved on to Otaki golf course on Saturday where we had another round on a more challenging, undulating course. This was after we wandered through all the factory shops (very busy) on the main road at Otaki which up until then I had always thught WAS Otaki but now I know the real town is off the main road!
The chatty Chinese lady in the main road golf shop encouraged us to play at Otaki and we're glad we did, even though it was going to be our rest day.
We are quite inspired by this tranquil spot - we were woken early by the whitebaiters arriving even though we had been up til nearly midnight watching the (yawn) netball NZ vs South Africa. Hence we were out, walking along the beach, at 6.30am making very long shadows! What a good feeling!
Oh no - Len is putting his golf shirt on