Wooley's Bay and Whananaki Coastal Walk

From the falls, we continued north. We thought we'd go to a camp out on a large point on the coast. The region had recently been hit by some massive storms, and upon arrival, we found that the campgrounds had closed. There were lots of huge houses, so we felt a little weird about freedom camping right on the beach here. We consulted the maps and pressed on northward.

We drove around another large point further north, until we stumbled upon this beautiful beach off Matapouri Road. A small dirt road led to a private pull-out, right on the beach. We parked it and called it home for the night...and the next!


Wooley's Bay seems to be used mostly by locals lucky enough to live right here.


Yet another stunning New Zealand sunrise. I really like the east coast sunrises.


Our campervan is the white speck in the middle of the picture! Can't beat it!


View from the camper to the beach. A small set of dunes is between our campsite and the beach. It's so lovely.


The trees are gorgeous...amazingly sculptural.

The map and a sign told us that there is a regional coastal walk from our camp at Wooley's bay to the next point north, Whananaki. It looked like a nice walk, so we decided to give it a go.


The dirt track leads to several private properties. Each person seems to have their own cove. Hmmmm...lottery ticket anyone?


All of the homes here are custom designs with really interesting architecture. This one here is the most unusual home I've seen. They have a Prius and a Landrover...Jon and I are ready to take over the place for them!


Beautiful bays...can you believe the color of the water?


Unknown to us at the time, we're heading out towards the point in the distance, about 1/3 of the way in from the right of the point. The beauty is definitely worth the walk!


The view from Capitaine Bougainville memorial point...ahhhh!!!!


And off to the other side...Sandy Bay. We met some great Kiwis here that told us about a track down to the beach that leads to the southern hemisphere's longest footbridge that leads to a store where we could get lunch. We decided to go for it and stay another night rather than walk back to the camper and drive some more! The beach was really gorgeous. We walked along, and missed the trail marker to the bridge!


We walked all the way around the spit and back up to the bay towards the bridge.


Lunch lies ahead! It's about 1:00 at this point, and stomachs are grumbling!


After a huge lunch at the shop in Whananaki, we headed back across the bridge towards camp. We decided to take the track back to camp rather than the beach, as the day was getting late and we have about 5K back to the camper.


I see a forest gnome in the tree! Oh, it's Jon! Aren't these trees amazing?


View back towards Whananaki, the sandspit and bay we hiked around. the forest here is actually a timber farm of Monterey pine and Eucalyptus.





Kim in the native forest


After a long day, we returned 'home' for a well-deserved beer! We found this great Ale at a shop in Whangari...We almost exptected crazy men in medieval garb banging coconuts to appear. I think we really found paradise here...by the way, the house right behind us is a vacation rental, and sells fresh-pressed olive oil. What a life!