Whangaroa, Kaeo & Taipa

Thursday was another beautiful day at Tauranga Bay - just like summer even though we are only 2 weeks short of winter. Len enjoyed fishing peacefully with his shirt off until he suddenly got a shark (so the neighbour who saw it said) on his his line. Then it was all go as he followed the shark along the beach trying to gradually reel it in. After some time the shark won, hooks, line and sinker!
There was only one fish, a kahawai, caught between the 5 or so fishermen all day. Even Ross who put his long line out twice caught nothing but weed, so Len was pleased that he at least had a little bit of action with the shark.

Relaxed pre "Jaws"

On Friday the first of the predicted big rain came in with the forecast telling us it is going to be wet for 5 or so days. It seemed a good time to move on after having 3 lovely days and nights at Tauranga Bay so we drove around to the little fishing village of Whangaroa where it was easy to catch drinking water very quickly from our roof as we gazed over the moored boats in the misty bay.

Fresh water straight from the gutter - mmmmm!

We didn't fill up our fresh water tank at the camping ground as it came out the creek and had to be boiled before use. Not wanting to pollute our tank we decided to try and find water elsewhere even though our tank was getting low. After visiting the 4 Square in Kaeo we headed 5 km south to a POP listed in our book as having power and water. After going through the farm gate and down a rather muddy drive to 2 houses we were greeted by 2 barking dogs owned by the neighbour, one of which looked particularly menacing so it was with caution that I left the bus to talk to the lady owner who was yelling at the dog. Even though there was still an NZMCA sign on the gate she thought it wasn't a POP anymore as the owners were away and just their son, who was at work, was living there. After finding out that we were short of water she invited us to fill up from the nearby POP owners tap saying the water was really nice so we did just that before we drove off although we did feel rather cheeky!
The next POP in Kaeo that we thought we might stay at also no longer exists - there is now a big building on the property - so we set off north again this time heading to a POP at Taipa which had been recommended to us and what a delightful spot it is, in Fred and Dorothy's garden right on the edge of the river estuary and a 2 minute walk to the little village. F & D happened to be away for the weekend but the neighbours, Yvonne and Keith, made us welcome and took our overnight payment of $11, which included power, to pass on to them.

Taipa POP stop

So far today the weather is a little brighter with patches of blue sky and sunshine to be seen between the odd shower although it is quite windy. We are now about to explore the lovely Karikari Peninsula which stretches along the western side of Doubtless Bay which was apparently named after Captain Cook sailed into the Bay and wryly said " This is doubtless a bay".
It's a such a picturesque part of NZ that you can understand why there seem to be quite a lot of retirees coming to the area and newer houses as a result.