Mongonui

Here we are in Mangonui and my view as I write this. This is what I remember. Little has changed since I was last here around 30 years ago. A little more development, some definite upgrades and preservation of old buildings, but the essence is the same. It is good for my soul.

A couple of nights before we left Ngugaru, we hit the board games, Luca has wanted Trivial Pursuit for ages, Rich gave it to him for his birthday and brought it with us. So much fun and I won, which made it even better, much to Rich and Luca’s annoyance 🙂

Our last day on the Tutakaka Coast was an adventure, we took the old east coast road up to Russel. Absolutely spectacular! The sunrise before we left was a tribute to the day ahead..

Here is a map of the areas we have been, or about to be travelling.

Every bend took us to views like this…

At the top of Helena Bay we found this little gem. A gallery and cafe, stop off here if you do this trip it is incredible, I brought some art to remember it by.

The reason we had left so early is, in addition to the road trip, we wanted to fit in a hike to the old whaling station just past Rawhiti in the Whangamumu Harbour. It was quite the hike but so worth it! Thanks Nige for the recommendation!

The below photos show the view from the top and the view from the bottom…

Luca was really happy to get to the top each time! 🙂

The Whangamumu Whaling Station was the only one in the world that caught whales with nets, and it was Northland’s longest running and most successful station. Starting in the mid 1800’s and eventually closing in 1940.

Rich and Luca are standing on the old ruins below:

We swam here, then climbed that hill again to head to Russell arriving in time for dinner . I spent a lot of time in this area in my early 20’s living and working. Russel is still a charming village, very crowded in summer but I know sleepy in winter and so picturesque..

We had dinner in one of the local pubs, slightly off the tourist track filled with locals, it brought back many memories for me. My happy boys….

We took the ferry across to Opua and drove the main route back down to Ngungaru for our last night there. We stopped on the way in Kawakawa, to use the famous loos. Friedensreich Hundertwasser build the toilets here and they are pretty impressive for public toilets 🙂 I worked at Kawakawa hospital for a while, living in the old nurses home there. It was a fully functioning hospital back then, nowadays not so much. This has happened to a lot of the rural hospitals up here that I used to work in, it makes me sad, having one really added a lot to all these communities.

Leaving Ngunguru was kinda hard we all loved it and had very much settled into our accommodation there, however adventure was calling. We headed across to Dargarville then up the west coast, stopping off at Kai Iwi Lakes. It is a very popular place for the locals and I camped here as a teenager a few times. It is beautiful, the camping is easy here, well set up.

Then it was on up to Tane Mahuta in the Waipoua Forest. Tane Mahuta is New Zealands largest known living Kauri tree, approximately 2000 years old and still growing. The last time I was here I as child you could just walk up and touch him. It has become a tourist destination now and so to protect him there is no more of that, but you can still get very close…

Driving up to the Hokianga after was quite the mission, coming over the hill to see the Hokianga Harbour made it all worthwhile

We stopped in the Opononi pub for lunch. This is a place again I spent time in and it feels not to have changed at all!

We drove from there to Rawene taking the ferry across…

then on up to Ahipara to the start of the infamous “90 Mile Beach” (yes it is as vast and beautiful as it looks)

From there to Kaitaia ( one of the larger towns in the far north) arriving finally in our destination Mangonui, at around 5pm

Rich and I were itching to take a quick walk around so left Luca talking to Lemon on the front lawn, (mobile connection had not been great on the way up)..

We went to have a quick look around. There was a “sun shower” while we were out and the double rainbow was amazing, a huge arc right over the place we are staying, (is it a sign maybe??!). It was so big I could not capture the whole thing, nor the beauty of it, but you get the idea 🙂

Rich has walked down to the store this morning to bring us back bagels and cream cheese that we added fresh tomatoes to, they are growing outside our front door and we were encouraged by the owner to eat as many as we want, not going to lie this really does feel like paradise, seriously considering just not going home 🙂

More in next post xx