Tolaga Bay

Tolaga Bay has the longest wharf in the southern hemisphere at 660 meters.
It is currently being repaired so you can only walk out about 400 meters.
At the 400 meter mark there is a buoy tied to the wharf
and if you are lucky you can use that buoy to play with a dolphin that hangs out there.



We had tea at the cafe at the Tolaga Inn. Highly recommended.

Salutations to the Sun

Ata marie!

On the ninth of October I wrote:
"Tux, the camp dog, was sad to be left behind when we left camp at 0545 to be the first to greet the sun today."

5:45 is a dark time of morning.



We didn't greet the sun from the lighthouse, but on the coast outside of Rangitukia.

The east cape has an amazing amount of driftwood.
Where does it all come from?

Looking back toward Mount Hikurangi



It was worth getting up at 0515 to see this sunrise, and to be among the first to greet the day.

Mystery Sticks

These things, which seem to be the marine equivalent of a scare crow, line the gravel road to the lighthouse.



They reminded me a little of the Blair Witch.
Spooky.

We took a lot of pictures of them.
I didn't dare get so close.
Thankfully, she didn't get eaten.

What are they?

Indepence, Part 2, but in random order.

After waking up early to watch the sun rise while listening to the tuis, my new sister wife, J and I took the kids to the beach.



The rain stopped and eventually the sun came out as we watched our children play in the sea caves and run on the beach. I'm certain ours were the worlds happiest children for at least twelve solid minutes, and it doesn't get much better than that.

This picture pretty much sums of New Zealand for me:

Surprisingly green grass, fluffy white sheep, and beaches.

See what I mean about the green? I didn't alter this photo - the grass truly is greener over here. Those birds are oyster catchers, and I think they are darling.

Independence, Part 1

We are now a family of 7. We've added two boys, N and I, and their parents, D and J. To celebrate their arrival we booked the bach (beach cottage) at Tawharanui.

This is what we woke up to Saturday morning:

We watched the sun rise while listening to the tuis.

This is the bach we stayed in. It sleeps 6, has a full kitchen with dishes and cookware and a full bathroom. Pretty comfortable!

This is the beach at the bach.

And this is the art at the public toilet in Matakana. Beauty everywhere you look.

I'll be posting more photos from our Independence Day weekend soon!

B's Northland adventures with Matt

Since I didn't go on this trip I can't really comment on the photos, but they are too lovely to stay hidden in my computer. I didn't do anything to the pictures- didn't change the colors, didn't mess with the lighting - New Zealand just is this beautiful.

Raglan - Home of the world famous left hand point breaks.

Easter is a four day holiday* here, and since we had the weekend off we decided to head out of town. I chose Raglan because it is relatively close to home, and I was intrigued by it's Bohemian Art/Surf culture.


We stayed in the cabooses:

This place offers accommodation in refurbished train cars with a hostel/backpacker/NZ holiday park atmosphere (ie shared bathrooms and kitchen facilities.)

Notice the Easter Bunny. She, along with 20,000 of her closest relatives and friends, lives here year round and thoughtfully provided a dyed hard boiled egg for P since her usual Easter Bunny was not willing to make the 6,000 mile swim to get here.

Also, notice the back of the Buddha sculpture.

If you are not so into cabooses, and you have some sway with the owners, you might get to stay here:

The view from this deck is amazing: (The view of the deck is also amazing.)

You could also stay in the "tipi retreat" for quite a lot more money or just bring your own tipi:

We met some nice folks here and had a quiet, relaxing break. While the shower experience was frustrating at times (scalding/freezing/scalding) and cooking dinner with 30 other people simultaneously is not my favorite sport, overall this was a great place. Best of all none of us acquired head lice which is my new gold standard for rating NZ backpackers/hostels/holiday parks.

On a day trip we visited Bridal Veil Falls: (Not to be confused with Bridal Veil Falls.)

On the way home we went to the Hamilton Zoo and chatted up this chimp:

And now P is off at horse camp and we are back at work. Fortunately this weekend is Anzac Day and my birthday, and I'm off work to boot! More adventures ahead!

Here is P, Flat RJ, Flat Ms Cool Nice, and BlingBling, the horse. Hope y'all have a great weekend!

* Good Friday is a big deal here- the shops close, no one works, and same goes for Easter Monday. B got Tuesday off as well - Easter Tuesday. I love all these holidays! Easter Tuesday?! Fantastic! Can't wait for Anzac and Queen's Birthday Monday!

Race to Wiaheke

P and I try to go sailing when A has to work weekends - this past weekend we raced to Poinui near Wiaheke Island on "Peppermint Planet" with R, K and M. The race is part of the Richmond destination series, for which R is the organizer. This means that he often is 1. handling VHF and cell calls during the resulting exciting race starts, and 2. trying to win. As the rest of the crew is 11 and under or otherwise engaged in managing the 11 and under crew, it makes for some exciting short-handed sailing.

This time we were able to carry the gennaker from damn near the start line, to around bean rock, past navy bouy, and right up the backside of "Prawn Broker" - one of the other boats in the race. R then proceeded to ride their stern wave for 40 minutes ;). Click on the image below for video.

From Race to Wiaheke March 2009

The race there is only part of the good times. There are parties on Friday and Saturday nights, fishing and diving on Saturday, a beach BBQ with games on Saturday evening, and another race home on Sunday. Thanks to R and K (and M) for a wonderful weekend.

More beaches, more sunsets

This was in Whangaroa harbour.

On Ninety Mile Beach at Ahipara.

I had no idea how many dead things wash up on beaches. I'm quite fascinated by it. Here's my folks and P investigating the upper half of a shark (ok, actually only P and I were interested in it. I even touched it with a stick and flipped it over to checked out the underside.).

90 mile beach at sunset.

M&D and P on St Helier's Beach, also at sunset.

Catherdral Cove on Coromandel Peninsula.

Hot water beach on Coromandel Peninsula. This place is very touristy - definitely the busiest beach we went to, but for good reason! Hot water springs bubble up through the sand and at low tide you can dig your own hot tub. Dreamy. I imagine if low tide was at 2pm it could be an unpleasant experience - like being boiled alive, but we went at sunset and it was perfect!

Finally, Piha beach. Yup, sunset.