Whangarei Heads

After climbing Mount Manaia we drove out further along the pictureque heads road to the Ocean Beach with its beautiful views - a bit of a walk from the carpark which isn't that big compared with all the parking that we have at the Mount but I guess our beach is much much longer. I can imagine that it becomes jam-packed in summer.
We stayed the night in the carpark where one other stationwagon was parked up for the night. Len tried a little surfcasting on the nice beach down by the rocks at dusk but returned empty handed so it was lucky that I already had the Thai Chicken Curry simmering away when he returned!

The hopeful baiting up stage!

Wednesday morning we drove back to the Heads Road and went as far as we could past Urquharts Bay to Woolshed Bay where there is a tiny parking area leading to a range of walkways crisscrossing the rugged Bream Head Scenic Reserve. We did the under 2 hour loop track around Busby Head which goes through farmland with grazing cattle past the defence gun emplacements from World War 2. A little sidetrack through bush up to the furtherest point on the headland gives great views out over the Pacific, its islands and the coast both ways. Then its a mixture of bush and farmland as you head around to Smugglers Bay - and idyllic white sandy, pohutukawa fringed beach from where you can head over the paddocks for a 15 minute walk back to the carpark. We are still so lucky with the weather - every day is still like summer with temperatures of about 22 degrees and it is now the 1st of May!

Smugglers Bay and Busby Head

On our way back along the Heads Road to the city of Whangarei we stopped at McLeod Bay where Len walked around a little further to fish off the floating pontoon with Bob, a semi-retired taxi driver, his grandson and 2-3 other young lads. He had been told it was a good fishing spot but no bites of significance were to be had. I even relinquished my deck chair on the bank of the bay for a while to try holding the rod to bring it some luck but that didn't work either!

Swimming in McLeods Bay

However it was hot work out there relaxing in the sun so we had a lovely swim in the bay afterwards - the water is still a nice temperature, the only downside being that our feet got rather ripped trying to get into deeper water over the sharp shell-encrusted rocks - very painful and I'm still digging out tiny bits of rock from my sole but I'm winning and can walk without limping today. The swim however was refreshing and great and worth it! Fancy still being able to swim in May!!

From there we drove to the NZMCA Park, just down the road, at the very end of Manganese Point with its beautiful views out over the harbour. Just a small parking area which would fit only 8 vehicles in - we were the 5th to arrive and 2 others came in after us. It was Happy Hour outside at 5.00 even though it got really cold when the sun dropped quickly behind the hill. We picked up a few tips from the others for our trip further north which is always handy.