We awoke early Tuesday Mourning parked across the street from a school in the Shipwreck Bay area. We had driven approximately 7 hours the day/night before in hopes of catching a shoulder high swell at Shipwrecks but what we found was not an amazing set up but flat. Emari and I took a long walk around the point escorted by a dog she named Frodo. Interesting enough he spotted us at his house and when we passed the sign on the gate read, "private access, dog may bite." More like, "dog gives guided tours." when back at the camper we made breakfast and decided we'd head North and find a Holiday Park so we could do laundry, clean out the toilet cassette etc. Emari had also scouted out a road along 90 mile beach.......more driving!
We were off, first pull off for 90 Mile Beach dirt and gravel but what we found was beach access to drive on the beach for 90 miles, we both concurred this was not a good idea in a two wheel drive camper van the size of a bus. Hind site being 20/20, I probably should have surfed. I couldn't tell how big it was but at least head high and bigger, rather long paddle and most of the waves were shutting down and closing out, besides I was tired and we needed to get stuff done. We opted to keep driving north when approximately 40-50km up the road their was another sign for 90 Mile Beach. This drive was more adventurous and scenic down a long dirt and gravel road that went on for miles through heavily wooded areas before eventually spitting us out on the beach. We decided to back track and press on.
Emari had found a Holiday Park in Waitiki which was Approximately 30km south of Cape Reinga. We coughed up our NZ $30 and pulled our camper van up to a powered site....finally heat without using propane. Not really sure of the order of things, but I think we scoped out where to empty our toilette casette, as well as dump our gray water and fill up. Once we obtained this information we pulled out the toilette cassette and also shot a little video documenting this disgusting chore. I opted for the dirty work and the brown liquid that poured from the cassette was nasty. Emari had filled a bucket with fresh water to rinse out, I think we completed this process 1-2 more times before Emari completed the educated portion of this chore....adding new chemicals to the cassette before sliding it back into place. We both showered, Emari started laundry and since the public dryer was broken, the owners allowed her to use the big dryer for our clothes. So far this trip has been filled with free shit.....no charge for surfboards and snowboards, free day of riding at Mt. Fuckyourpapa, free up grade on the camper van(Megha score on this one), free dryer use and countless free hours of driving adventure!!!
Wednesday August 10 we woke by 7am and I asked Emari if we could pull out and eat later, she was agreeable and we headed for Cape Reinga which was 20 plus km north. This place was amazing, where the Tasman Sea violently collides with the Pacific Ocean. It was very windy with light rain when we arrived. It was really the first touristy thing we did, walking the foot path, reading the signs and snapping photos along the way. Their appeared to be clean surf on the Tasman Sea side, but how you would get to it was beyond me, we were perched high up on a ridge line. Our timing could not have been better, by the time we got to the camper van it started pouring rain in sheets with gusty winds.
We headed south down 1F and checked the surf at Rarawa Beach and Henderson Bay. Their was surf but it was stormy on shore mess. We had Internet service at Henderson Bay so I checked the surf reports and called Ste'en who was getting ready to leave Raglan for Auckland for three days. He advised staying on the East Coast the next 2-3 days, the winds would be wrong for Raglan. He also advised staying further north, more exposed and bigger but I did not want to leave another 7 plus hour drive a head of me. I decided on Helena Bay, 48 kms north of Whangarei....we arrived 4 hours later to another pristine bay, flat! Of course the swell is not hitting until tomorrow, but their was no sign of life and I was thinking wrong swell angle. Emari and I decided on Whananaki North, 32 kms and 23 minutes South, according to google maps. Emari fired up our course on the iPad, she has been an amazing co-pilot and has gotten us to every destination.....without fail and in most cases without excitement. In fact most of our great stories have no happened on a board but driving.....this would prove to be no different!
We pulled out of Helena Bay and as instructed I turned left onto Webb Road. The road quickly turned to gravel and dirt and started to get steep and windy....no big deal, the whole trip has been steep and windy and we were no novices to gravel and dirt at this point. It was probably only 4-6 switch backs up this mountain pass that the road got narrow, remained gravel and dirt, no guardrails, I mean fucking scary. I confirmed and asked, "32 kms of this?" Of course Emari did not know the answer, we were back into the unknown and rest assure this camper van, this mini bus probably had never seen roads like this! Early on I attempted to climb in third gear but it was too steep, I needed more power in a lower gear, less braking on the descents, we lived in second gear. Approximately a third of the way I blurted out, "I could fucking cry" this road was that scary. I would've thought it crazy in a small 4x4 truck and we were in a 6 Berth 2 wheel drive camper van......this had become our Lord of the Rings, our journey into Middle Earth and beyond. I can't imagine if we were to encounter on-coming traffic, their simply was not room for two. At one point we came to a fork in the road, we were not sure, no 3G service, no google maps. We stopped on a relatively sharp incline and I asked, "which way?" Emari hesitated and said, "straight" only to find out later that she simply made a calculated guess at best! Emari later disclosed that she saw a white car that had gone off the road, adding that at that point she felt really scared. As for me, afraid of heights, ledges.....the uncertainty, we made it and it became another highlight of our trip. This 23 minute trip turned into an hour of non stop uncertainty!
We settled in to a campground in Whananaki North and we'll see what tomorrow brings. Trying not to be down for lack of found surf the past 3 days, though the search has been quite the adventure. What I have found is that the driving is hard not quick and leaving one spot to check a neighboring spot can turn into a 30 minute to hour drive. We also really scored the first 8 days we were in NZ....Raglan right off the plane couple feet over head, Wainui Beach head high with bigger sets for two days, two amazing days of riding Mt Doom and three days of surf in the Gisborne area. Since we left Raglan we have driven 400 plus kms a day, countless mountain passes, countless single lane bridges, many unknowns, countless sheep and cattle, endless spaces of no people, miles upon miles without a car in front of you or one behind you, countless children with deliberately no shoes on their feet, must be cultural and the list goes on......the work truck in Gisborne that had the following signage on the truck, "Erection Specialist"......we ate a" Hangi in a Pie" today.
Off to bed........AJ
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