Of rainbows
The sea was calling to us so we ate our lunch at Waihi Beach in sight and sound of the sea. And what a sea! It was high high tide and some waves rolled in with so much energy we had to clamber up the bank to avoid getting wet feet. All that energy boiling away in the sea made for an invigorating walk.
On our return we were rewarded with a magnificent full scale rainbow which reminded us of another spectacular rainbow which Ross captured on Anzac Day, 2012 from the top floor of New Zealand House in London.
As photographers do, Ross likes to have foreground interest in his photos. Here’s another of our favourite rainbow photos - this time on Penhill, looking down Wensleydale towards Leyburn where we lived for 6 months in 2016. Ross captioned it with “I’ve found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
I just rewatched an inspirational clip of Maya Angelou speaking of God giving her rainbows in her clouds.
Bella - our new mobile home
Our new campervan is called Bella which means beautiful. That’s shorthand for Bella Vita – a beautiful life, which is what the campervan enables for us. We traded in our very large 5th wheel mobile home for a much more convenient size campervan, We used the experience of the 5th wheeler, to help us define what we needed in a mobile home. Something that was both big enough to travel in for several weeks at a time, and small enough to park in the supermarket, or at a freedom camping site.
Bella has enough storage for all our biking, walking and camping gear. The storage area is now full of boxes with outdoor gear, and Ross’ first job as new owner was to install a bike rack on the back.
The kitchen is compact, with just a two burner stove top and a sink. We’re working out what we can cook with these facilities, as we prefer to eat “in” after a day outdoors. There are great advantages in the compactness, such as being able to reach the bench-top from the dining table. Although the kitchen is small, the fridge is a good size which suits us.
The bathroom Is a particular joy with a surprising amount of storage for such a small space. The shower is one of the most creative solutions to space-saving we’ve ever seen in a mobile home. It has a wrap around screen which you use for the 5 minutes each day you are actually showering. At all other times, it’s part of the circulation space between the bed and the living area. This diagram from the manufacturers website may help to see how that works
The other stand-outs for space saving are the dining area which makes use of the drivers and passengers seats and the bed, which glides up and down at the touch of a switch. During the day, it’s up out of the way, allowing easy access to the storage space. At night, it’s an easy climb in and out of it.
Living a better life
Our determination to live better dates back to around the time my mother died. During the reflective time after her death, a friend asked whether I had unresolved dreams for things to do with my mother which we hadn’t been able to achieve. Although the answer to that question was no, Ross and I identified that we had many unrealised aspirations to do things together. We set about changing that, particularly in relation to travel - to see family and to explore places – in conjunction with work trips and just for pleasure.
By 2011 our aspirations had evolved further: we wanted to be able to respond to the interesting opportunities that were being presented to us, we wanted more love, laughter and adventures in our days – to spend more time with family and friends, more time in the sunshine being active and we wanted to do good work. We wanted to be open to adventures, either at home in NZ’s great outdoors or overseas if opportunities presented themselves. The plan was not to have a plan.
It took some months to divest ourselves of the financial responsibilities of the old life that tied us to corporate jobs and salaries and to achieve a financial position that allowed us to take up work that was worthwhile, interesting, and challenging, but not necessarily well-paid. We down-sized from our large family home appropriate for raising a family, to a mobile home suitable both for adventures and also as a base in shaky Christchurch where we worked on documenting the impact of the earthquakes in photographs.
Opportunities to work overseas opened up for me, providing consultancy services to improve research and information services in developing parliaments. The short-term assignments in Myanmar developed into a longer contract so that Ross joined me there in 2013 where we fell in love with the gentle people and the beauty of the landscapes and temples. It was an extraordinary opportunity to work in the Myanmar Parliament just at the time when democracy was being established and the people could choose their leadership for the first time in 50 years.
When my contract in Myanmar ended in 2016, the next adventure beckoned us to live in Yorkshire for 6 months helping to run a B&B on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. We loved both the work and the opportunity to walk or cycle almost every day exploring the glorious landscapes of the Dales.
By the end of 2016 it was time to head home to New Zealand. While I was sorting out what came next for work we began our South Island Odyssey through the south of the South Island, cycling every NZ Cycle Trail and walking the Rakiura Track in Stewart Island.
What came next for work, was a role in Auckland, which allowed us to explore a region that we didn’t know well. We particularly loved the coast and the estuaries, as well as the volcanoes and the forests, so we spent our weekends and holidays exploring.
Now that the time has come for us to leave Auckland, we are undertaking a North Island Odyssey, with the intention of cycling most of the NZ Cycle Trails in the North Island and walking another of the Great Walks - Lake Waikaremoana.
Wild west coast beaches
Neither of us had ever been to Raglan, so it seemed a good place to start exploring on our North Island odyssey. Nothing we like better than a good long west coast beach walk on a sunny wintry afternoon.
There were such intriguing patterns in the sand made by the tide, volcanic rocks and beautiful vistas of bays with surf rolling in.
This hang glider looked to be having such fun swooping and soaring above us. We waved cheerily, but got no response.
We walked further than intended, so we were treated to this gorgeous evening light at sunset as were returning. The locals had come out to play - whether that meant digging in the sand, riding a bikes or walking their dogs.
The sky turned pastel and the harbour so tranquil and peaceful as we returned to our campervan. A fitting end to a great first day.
Cycling in Coromandel: Day 10, 8th January: Whangapoua
This was the day our epic adventure turned into a holiday! We woke early and decided to return to Wainuiototo Beach again. Low tide was at 6.00 am and if we left it too late, the rocky section would be much more difficult to negotiate.
The early morning light was enchanting on the marshes as we bowled across the marshlands. The walk along the beach was, if anything, even lovelier in the morning light than the previous evenings walk.
The sea enticed us in again, although the surf was less exciting than yesterday. Such clear blue water to enjoy. Here is the photographic evidence that Ross went swimming too!
Whangapoua beach is also an outstanding beach, with wonderfully white sand contrasting with the acquamarine seas, and native grasses.
In a day of visiting beautiful beaches we stopped off at the entrance to Whangapoua Village to explore the Opera Point Reserve where we found another glorious beach with white sand, clear water and families with boats and picnics. Moira had her second swim of the day as she wanted to explore the end of Opera Point and the only way to get there at high tide was to swim. She was rewarded with a family of oystercatchers. No photos, because she swam there!
We got back to our campsite for a crunchy salad lunch and a busy afternoon posting blogs. We had decided to bike across to Matarangi to find something fishy for dinner and we assumed it would also be a nice gentle ride like the one to Whangapoua Beach. How wrong we were - 2 steep hills later, we arrived, hot and sweaty to Matarangi Beach. Our 4th gorgeous beach of the day - especially in the long evening light.
The ride home after dinner showed the hills in the same magical evening light, with the layers of steep hills of the Coromandel Peninsula marching away. We are looking forward to exploring Castle Rock when we get closer in a few days. It is such a feature on the sky line.
Cycling in Coromandel: Day 9, 7th January: Coromandel - Whangapoua
An early start was planned and achieved so there would not be too much traffic on the road as we were heading over route 25, the main road. Even more likely to be busy, as the storm had caused numerous slips between Coromandel and Thames so a lot of the traffic to Thames was going the long way around via Whitianga (i.e. our route).
We had spent several days looking at the steep hills behind Coromandel Town. Still, it came as a surprise to us, just how steep and long the hill was out of Coromandel Town. Of course, it afforded marvellous views both to the east and west coasts of the Coromandel Peninsula once we made it to the top. Lots of walking for Moira, while Ross managed to cycle to the top on his e-bike, albeit with plenty of rest stops in the occasional shady spot.
A swift descent down the other side into Te Rerenga, which has the most colourful school I’ve ever seen and not much else. The Whangapoua Holiday Park is right on the junction with SH 25, some 7 km from Whangapoua village. It’s a pleasant green campsite, utilising former Forestry Service cabins as it is sited right next door to the Forestry Service. After we set up our camp and ate a huge green salad for lunch (we’d been missing fresh veggies up in northern Coromandel), we spent the afternoon catching up on blog postings.
In the late afternoon we headed off to Whangapoua village across the causeway which used to be a railway line for moving kauri trees. Our destination was Wainuiototo Beach (New Chums Beach) which is reached, rather romantically, by a river crossing and a 30 minute walk which includes a stretch picking your way amongst the rocks, then through a delightful piece of bush across the headland.
It was absolutely worth the walk and what a beautiful time of night to visit. The surf was almost perfect so we enjoyed a great frolic and then a stroll along the beach to the far end, observing dotterels and oystercatchers as we went.
Reversing our journey back to Whangapoua Holiday Park, we found the camp kitchen was a social place as we talked to a number of European family groups about their experiences in NZ.
Cycling in Coromandel: Day 8, 6th January, 2018: Fletchers Bay to Coromandel Town
We made an early start from Fletchers Bay, after saying a fervent thank you to Rangers Judy and James for their hospitality. The first hill of the day, in what promised to be a challenging ride of 6 big hills, gravel road and who knows what debris on the road.
What we were really interested to see was what damage at occurred at the Port Jackson Campground as a result of the previous day’s king tide, exacerbated by the storm surge and the super moon. We knew from reports that the seas had washed over the front half of the campground. It was still a shock to see the damage for ourselves.
The sea had thrown up debris across the previously tidy campsite. Bollards had been uprooted and redistributed, along with the wreckage of the boat, previously tidily gathered together waiting for the right conditions for a burn-off.
One of the worst areas was right in front of the office, which the sea got rather close to.
Clean up had begun with staff, volunteers and campers all lending a hand.
As well as the debris strewn by the sea, there were large rocks across many of the campsites. The image above shows the site where we had camped two nights previously. It was uncomfortable thinking about the possibility that the sea might have dumped those rocks there while our tent was there.
The previously sandy beach was now a stony beach. No-one knows how long it may take for the sand to return - if it does. Not surprisingly, there was no-one in the water.
A last look at Port Jackson which had suffered so in the storm. Frederick and Ursula, who are the Rangers at the campground, took such good care of the site and the campers. Some of the campground was still pristine and hosting campers, and I am sure they will work very hard to restore the rest of it to the welcoming, peaceful place it was when we arrived.
We were also a little apprehensive about what we might find as we headed south to Coromandel Town along the gravel road which mostly hugged the coastline.
The seas were still fierce, boiling white against the foot of the cliffs. Along much of the coastline, the sea was muddy from the streams. The sea had undermined the root systems of a number of the pohutakawas which seems likely to cause further damage in the next big winds.
The camp ground at Waiaro was flooded.
But there were also sights to delight us that had nothing to do with the impact of the storm and reminded us of the reason that we cycle. It is so much easier to see and to stop to closely observe sights such as these nesting shags.
After all the storm damage that was observable from Port Jackson through to Colville, the route after our lunch stop at Colville was uneventful. Just 3 more large hills and 25 km to ride, before we pulled into Coromandel Town. Tired after all that we had seen, the hills and the 60 km we had ridden, we enjoyed a marvellous dinner at the Pepper Tree restaurant and went thankfully to bed.
Sitting out the storm : Day 7, 5th January 2018: Port Jackson/Fletchers Bay
After a challenging night with heavy rain and lashing winds that made it impossible to keep everything dry in our small tent, we woke to hear the thundering of the sea. About 2.00 am the rain stopped, but the wind continued as strong as ever, caused huge swells. We decided to get up at 5.30 am as the rain had stopped and the wind was drying out the tent to make it easier to pack up, with the plan of riding out from Port Jackson to Colville during the short period with no rain.
Even eating breakfast was challenging as the wind was so strong that the kitchen shelter didn’t provide a great deal of protection from the wind. As we were packing up the DOC Ranger came to speak to us and recommended that we should not ride out from Port Jackson as the wind was too strong and there was a risk we would be blown off the road. As his request was close to a plea, I gave in at that point to Ross’ wish to stay put. The Ranger offered us transport to a DOC bunk house a kilometre or two down the road and some emergency food supplies which made us feel a whole lot better.
While we waited for the transport, we watched the waves rolling in mesmerised by the power of the ocean. The tide was still 90 minutes from full and the waves were already breaking at the beach edge with considerable force. The pieces of the shipwreck from out in the bay were washing up and it was clear that the collection of smashed boat pieces that had been collected at the cliff edge were going to be distributed around the bay by the sea.
Frederick came to give us a lift to the shelter and also offered transportation out to Colville from James and Judy (Rangers at Fletchers Bay) who were heading out for the day. The day was definitely looking up. After coffee at the DOC bunkhouse, we walked up the road to the hilltop carpark and walked back along the Murawai Ridge Walkway towards Port Jackson. The seas were huge, boiling white at the foot of all the cliffs. The wind was fierce, fortunately blowing us towards the cliff, and causing us to miss many steps. Reluctantly I had to admit that as the wind was frequently blowing us off balance, it would not have been safe to ride out in those conditions.
Ranger Heather arrived back at the DOC bunkhouse to tell us that there was a change of plan because the road to Colville was closed, and the rangers were needed at both Port Jackson and Fletchers Bay to deal with the conditions there. She showed us pictures of the devastation caused by the king tide at 11.00 am, which had been exacerbated by the super moon and the storm surge. The front part of the campsite was badly damaged, with the walkway destroyed, bollards swept away, the camp kitchen swamped and water nearly up to the office. One of the highest tides ever.
The change of plan included an offer of a night at the DOC backpackers at Fletchers Bay for no extra charge. The Backpackers gave us warm, dry shelter, hot showers, and some ability to dry things out. A great offer, given that there were few other alternatives with the road closed. Rangers James and Judy from the DOC Campground at Fletchers Bay would pass by shortly to pick us up and take us over there.
We spent the afternoon quietly and gratefully at Fletchers Bay, chatting to the two families who were fellow guests at the backpackers, enjoying a warm shower, charging all devices, writing up our trip blog, and drying out a little. A much better prospect for a good nights sleep and some restorative rest after the challenging previous night in the little tent.
Cycling in Coromandel: Day 6, 4th January: Port Jackson
Thursday 4th January, Day 6: Port Jackson – Murawai clifftop walk and sitting out the storm
We woke to a grey sky and some wind. The forecast which we had been constantly monitoring was ominous. Heavy rain, perhaps as much as 50 mm, and strong winds were expected from about mid-day. Having decided the previous day to sit it out, it was just a matter of waiting for the storm to arrive and hoping that it would not be as bad as the forecast. We battened down the hatches, put everything under cover, erected the ground sheet to provide extra shelter and hoped for the best.
Nature still provided us with interesting sights, such as this pair of oystercatchers, both standing on one leg. No doubt, they too, knew that the storm was brewing.
A number of the campers went swimming, as it was still comfortably warm, despite the grey skies.
We spent a lot of the morning sitting about in the kitchen shelter, which was fortunately close to our tent site, and talking to other campers. We decided to shift the tent further up the hill in the hope of finding a bit more shelter from the wind and the rain.
After mooching about waiting for the storm to arrive, we decided that maybe we had time to walk the Murawai Track along the beach and up the ridge. Soon after we set out, the storm arrived and Ross turned back. Moira, as is her wont, continued on, regardless of the weather and got rather wet and cold. The views were still wonderful, despite the weather.
When the storm arrived, it was clear that the forecast matched the reality. The rain was heavy and the wind was strong. We retreated to our tent to watch early episodes of Grand Designs, then back to the kitchen to make and eat an early dinner. Then a retreat once again to our tent to try to keep everything away from the walls so that it would stay dry. The bikes and our gear trolley were over by the kitchen shelter, where they were reasonably sheltered. Even so, it was not possible to stay completely dry in the conditions and the night was one of the most challenging we have ever spent in a tent.
Cycling in Coromandel: Day 5, 3rd January 2018: Port Jackson
Wednesday 3rd January, Day 5: Port Jackson – bike to Fletchers Bay to walk the Coastal Walkway to Stony Bay
We woke to a beautiful sunny day at Port Jackson, but also to ominous news about a storm brewing for the next day. After breakfast, we took some time to assess our options for handling the storm. In the glorious sunshine, it was easy to believe that the storm warning might be stronger than the actuality proved to be, and that the storm might pass us by. After checking out other options for routes and transport we decided to sit it out in Port Jackson and hope the storm was not too bad, and didn’t last too long.
We rode over to Fletchers Bay to do the famous Coromandel Coastal Walkway which had been our original reason for travelling to the very north of the Coromandel Peninsula. It’s only 7km from Port Jackson, but it’s some hill in between! The view from the top past Fletchers Bay was stunning - don’t you just love that pointy rock that looks like a hungry chick waiting to be fed.
We were also interested to see how much damage the fire at Fletchers Bay had caused. A young drunkard had directed fireworks straight at the dry grass on New Years Eve. Fortunately, the wind took the fire away from the camp towards the headland, as there were 300 campers that night (would have been us, except for the accident of our wheel trouble). Later on we learnt that the drunkard had run away in his car, leaving his wife and children behind at the campsite. Which was a good thing as there were people who were ready to lynch him. There was enough going on with volunteer fire-fighters arriving from Colville to control the blaze throughout the night and then helicopters with monsoon buckets joining them at first light. The perpetrator was identified and we were told will be charged with arson, and the cost of fighting the fire, and the damage recouped - some $100,000 seems likely.
The Coastal Walkway quickly climbed past the burnt headland and over farmland. Shortly the track entered the bush, where the cool was very welcome. The views of the Coromandel coastline and the nearby islands were stunning, and reminded us a little of Halong Bay in Vietnam because of the steepness of the rocks and the lush vegetation covering them.
With our late start due to exploring options for dealing with the storm, we didn’t have enough time to walk all the way from Fletchers Bay to Stony Bay and back, so we settled for walking to the Lookout Point, which took 2 hours, and returning. On the way back, we explored the wonderful rock formations at Poley Bay.
Riding back over the hill to Port Jackson, gave us a splendid view of the bay at Port Jackson and the wide expanse of sandy beach. Another great Coromandel day.
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