Sunday, February 18, 2018

Whangarei Waterfall and a Coastal Look See

Whangarei Water Fall

Even though we are staying in a Hotel.com lodge, it is much like a B and B with a made to order breakfast.  They even have individual French press coffee, our favorite.  Andy, the owner with wife Karen, was the chef.  I’m not sure if they live in the house.  The kitchen and dining room are in a building adjacent to the house.  There is another building across from the kitchen is that I believe has rooms.  The grounds are huge with orchards, stone walls and hedges that go to the clouds.  They have sheep, chickens, cattle and an ancient goat.  Andy gave us suggestions for the day.  We took his advise to start at Whangarei Water Falls.  These Falls are much more impressive than Rainbow and Hururu in Russell.  First, they are white, not brown.  But they have nice swimming holes at the top and bottom where locals were spending time.

Sandy Bay

From the Falls we drove up along the east coast to Matapouri and the Sandy Bay.  Here we had our first glimpse of real surf and surfers.  Along the way we passed through other small waterfront settlements with fishermen, sailors, and fun seekers.  Every harbor seems packed with sail boats.  The terrain here is fairly hilly with great vistas.  Quickly one can be looking at vast pastures and then suddenly be in deep woods.  

The Tidal Basin

This evening we went downtown to an area called The Tidal Basin which is where we had dinner the first evening.  Many sailboats are anchored there with people having dinner onboard.  Interestingly, most of them have photovoltaic panels mounted on them.
Pictures at flickr.