Karikari Peninsula Part 2

The Peninsula is a beautiful area with its stretches of beach and little rocky bays. We had intended to stay out at one of the camping grounds for a night or two but we covered the roads more quickly than we anticipated and instead just enjoyed stopping at the different beaches and strolling along them. Our first stop on the western side was Rangiputa - a nice little holiday spot with a sandy safe beach and some nice, probably permanent, houses and other tidy holiday homes. At this time of year there is hardly anyone about - another couple walking down the beach and a young Maori mother working for a company surveying the fishing catches coming in off the boats to see what changes are happening over the years to the number of fish and type being caught and whether it is being affected by the commercial fishing in the area. She was having a quiet day as only one boat had come in when we talked to her later at a bay further round.

T running backwards @ Rangiputa

We took the road out past the distant Lake Rotokawau to the Puwheke Recreation Reserve, an isolated little spot without any houses and just a tiny parking area from where there is a short walk over the dunes to the beach. From here it was back to the main road and on to Matai and Whangatupere Bays, a very pretty area with a nice DOC camp at Matai Bay. We could have easily stayed there, and been the only ones, but it wasn't a good fishing day and after doing the only short walk we felt the need to keep exploring. So it was on to Whatuwhiwhi Bay, down a fairly steepish road to find a nice little secluded holiday place nestled into the hillside above the little bay with the usual boat ramp and also a Top 10 Campground. The next bay coming back towards SH10 is Tokerau Bay, which has a great 18 km long beach and a lot of housing development. There seem to be a lot of sections on the market waiting to be built on. We have been told that the camp there is a good one to stay at but still being in sightseeing mode we continued on, back to the main road away from the Peninsula, and through Awanui to head North.

L @ Whangatupere Bay

Awanui is a bit of a shock to the senses with such economic depression evident - the little uncared for delapidated houses which look like they couldn't possibly be lived in, but are. It makes you want to wave a magic wand to enable people to firstly have jobs and secondly to restore their self esteem of which you can't imagine that they have much of. We stopped for petrol but unfortunately it's not a place to make you want to linger.
At this point we were heading for Houhora Heads, a place that we had stopped at to pick up passengers when we did the bus trip from Awanui up to Cape Reinga and down Ninety Mile Beach when we came up 5 or so years ago. Len loved the look of the area and has wanted to return to spend more time there. I'm still struggling to recall it!!