North Island - East Cape and the Coromandel

Saturday 28^th January – Tuesday 7^th February

After waking up feeling a little jaded and hungover (after a last shape cutting episode in wellytown), we packed the car, cleaned the house and farewelled the flatmates and headed up the road to Napier

We stopped and camped by Lake Tutira north of Napier, a lovely camp by the lake but with some swans that I thought may pop their heads into the biv to wake us up in the morning

Night 1 – Lake Tutira, Napier

The next day we packed up the car and hit the road – aiming for Hicks Bay, a long windy drive up te east coast past lots and lots of, well nothing (but beautiful bush-clad nothing), we arrived at a campground, this time to be greeted by some friendly chickens

 Night 2 – Hicks Bay, East Coast

We tried our luck with some fishing of a wharf and the beach with not much success

Not much sleep was had that night as we had to deal with swarms of mossies and another campers decision to listen to talk back all night

On Monday we continued up the coast through Opotiki and on to Whakatane, were we invested in the ingredients for some homemade insect repellent, a Marshall special of Detol and Baby Oil – it works really well! Except you do smell a little strange with it on!!

We stopped for a fish and a sleep on the way before arriving at our next camp, a lovely DOC campsite in Matata, this time it was Pukekos who kept us company!

Night 3 - Matata, Whakatane

 Beach near Matata Campsite

Well fishing on the beach by camp we came across a poor seagull with a hook and sinker attached (see pic below), we managed to free it of the hook and line and it happily flew away

The Poor Seagull attached to a hook and sinker

 We then made our way up to the Coromandel, and headed up the West Coast to Port Jackson, were we stayed in a beautiful campsite by the beach

Night 4 - Port Jackson Coromandel

After a long hot drive we had a swim and a wander round some rocks – following by some fishing  (but only handsized snapper were caught)

Fishing at Port Jackson

View of Port Jackson

We then headed over the hill to Fletcher Bay, and went for a lovely walk around the coast, before heading back down the coast and over to the East side of the Coromandel, were Aaron found a Wharf that looked VERY good for fishing

Walk from Fletcher Bay

We stopped there for some lunch, and it seems he was right, he caught a good sized Kingfish that gave us a good fight, and then right before leaving I landed a snapper for dinner! Yum

Aaron being owned by the Kingy

Kingy

Snapper I caught for Tea

We then headed to Waikawau Bay to spend the next couple of nights

Nights 5 & 6 - Waikawau Bay Coromandel

After roughing it for the last week we headed down the coast and caught up with Helen at her place in Te Rerenga, a good feed of wild Venison and Pork sausages and a sleep in a real bed felt amazing!

Nights 7,8,9 - Helen's Place - Te Rerenga

Gemma and Jeremy also made the trip down to the Coro and we headed out to a beach for a fish and a swim – and to laugh at Gemma and Helen swinging gracefully from a rope swing J

 Gem and Aaron getting a little excited about Ice Cream!

 Helen providing the entertainment

 Gem, Jeremy, Helen

On the last day in the Coro we headed off to New Chums beach before hitting the road, it was great to end our trip with good friends and good food, thanks Helen, Gem and Jeremy!! 7!

We battled our way through the Auckland-bound traffic and headed down country, camping in Mangaweka (well sleeping in the car to avoid the mossies!)

Night 10 - Mangaweka

Back in Wellington we packed up the car (in the poring rain – cant beat Welly on a good day) and said goodbuy to peoples, before having a dinner and snooze at Lynette’s, - thanks! J

We caught the 2:30am Ferry and are now down in the South Island sorting out our gear for the next part of the adventures