You are what you eat!

Matauri Bay - Heading north from Paihia we passed through Kerikeri and took a loop out to Matauri Bay and Tauranga Bay. The beaches looked beautiful but the surf was too big for windsurfing so we decided to head a little further to Hihi which is in Doubtless Bay. (The name Doubtless Bay came from Captain Cook's log book which, in comment to the area, he had written, "Doubless it's a Bay". Clever boy.)

Hihi Beach
The campground is directly behind the beach.

We spent the day windsurfing here.

Pohutukawa Flower - Christmas Tree

The Expert doing a gybe. Sink that tail!

It's tough learning...

...but I'm getting there.

Now how's this for dedicated to the job. Roy had a project that he was working on for a client in Calgary so rather than stay in Auckland he brought his lap top and worked on it in the tent at night. (There were too many bugs outside so he set up in the tent.)

Monganui Harbour Carol spent a lot of time up in this area when she first came to NZ back in '82. We had planned to camp at one of my favorite campsites, Cooper's Beach, but arrived to find it replaced with houses and condo's. Time marches on everywhere.

Captain Cook scouting the land! Who wudda thunk he came on a windsurfer.

Coopers Beach

From Monganui we headed north to the Karikari Peninsula and camped at Whatuwhiwhi.  (pronounced Fa tu fi fi)

Roy windsurfed here but it was too windy and wavey for Carol.

Lucky for us most campgrounds have wonderful cooking facilities as we forgot the fuel bottle and pump for our stove. This was by far one of the nicer campgrounds we stayed at. Great Showers, kitchen, laundry, BBQ area, fish cleaning for those who fish, trampoline, etc.

The campsite kitchen with stoves, sinks, fridge, toasters, freezers, etc.

The BBQ area was beautifully landscaped and had huge bbq's for anyone to use.

Here we are back at Paihia in the Bay of Islands. It's definitely a tourist town. All kinds of boat trips, paragliding, tandem skydiving, coffee shops, restaurants, and people. We had a go at windsurfing at one of the beaches but we had an offshore wind. Very spooky for the beginners!

We played tourist for awhile and checked out the wharf and coffee shops. We camped at Haruru Falls which is 5 minutes from Paihia. 

It was great to see and play up north before all the people vacated Auckland for their summer/xmas  holiday. Can't imagine what it would have been like with all the campgrounds full to overflowing. (July long weekend in Banff!) It was quite peaceful while we were there.

These are a couple of views of Auckland from the top of the Waitakere Ranges.

The high point off in the distance is Rangitoto Island that we look across to from our flat.

Karekare Beach

Roy didn't want to take his shoes off!

All of these pictures look much better if you click on them for a larger view.

A small train was used to transport the Kauri trees out to the beach through this tunnel.

This is one of the very majestic Pohutukawa Trees. They are just coming into bloom now and are known as the Christmas Tree as they have red flowers and bloom at xmas..

This tree is commonly known as a  Cabbage Tree.

One of the original railway spikes from early logging of the Kauri Trees. The Kauri trees were very tall straight trees commonly used for ship masts.

Brian's father was a returned War Veteran and also a Surf Guard at Karekare beach. Brian is pointing to his father's name on the memorial...