Whangaruru to Paihia

Peace, tranqility, HOPE!

After leaving our very quiet nice camp at Whangaruru South we drove towards Russell, taking a detour down the road to Bland Bay, a beautiful, big, sheltered bay which is not "Bland" as it's name suggests. Len couldn't resist going fishing off the rocks while we were there - lots of nibbles in the first half hour but nothing brought to the surface. Several boats were launched from the nearby ramp while we were there but none returned so we couldn't see how successful they were.

Going fishing for clues??- don't think so!!

We had a wander around Russell as we ate our icecreams and tried to decide where we would stay the night. We have been there before so didn't feel the need to explore any further. We stopped at a POP about a km short of the car ferry at Okiato which was described as having a large vehicle access but it was just someones front yard and you couldn't swing a cat. We were pleased that there was no-one home as Len did an 8 point turn to get back onto the road! It was only about 5.00pm so we continued on down the road to the ferry terminal where we were able to go straight on to the waiting ferry which goes continuously back and forward across the harbour to Opua.

Yet another quiet spot by the water!

Once across it was a short drive up the road to the Paihia Beachside Holiday Park - a lovely little spot on the waterfront where there are nice cabins and about 8-9 other motorhomes parked by the end of the evening - mostly tourists. In the morning we did part of the Opua coastal walk which runs through the camp and takes you right into Paihia. Waitangi Golf Club was the next port of call, really just to enquire when would be a good time to play, but as there was a "space" right at that time we teamed up with Darcy, a newcomer to the club, for a round.
He was good company and despite being deluged by rain between the 9th and the 15th we enjoyed the course with its lovely views out over the sea although the second nine I found rather hilly and strenuous. Len was playing pretty well for not knowing the course although we did play on it about 5 years ago when we were first starting the crazily testing game.

After golf we returned to the Beachside Holiday Park where I had great delight in cooking my roast veges (to go with our hot rotisseried Countdown chicken) in the camp oven which I could get hotter than my gas one.