We had a slow-ish start to
the morning, but eventually left Ahipara and headed to Kaitaia. Accomplished a couple of errands, had a
bite, and I found a wonderful community mosaic mural! It was at the entrance of what was once the town’s large
supermarket (it has since moved a bit north) and 
is now mostly a parking lot –
there were fish, suns, flowers, scenery, and abstract designs – just a
beautiful mosaic, and of course I had to take a bunch of photos of it. (There were two men sitting in front of
the mosaic, one being an older man in a wheelchair eating his lunch, the other
a 
middle-aged man smoking. They
both asked if I needed them to move – I said no, thank you though, I can just
photograph around you – and I’m a retired art teacher who did mosaic murals
with my students the last several years, so I just love this mural. They laughed, agreed it was 
beautiful,
and continued watching me photograph the entire thing.)
So – Richard and I
formulated a plan. I wanted to go
north to Cape Reigna, the northern most tip of the North Island and where the
Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. Richard wanted to head east to the Bay of Islands. We compromised with the Karikari
Peninsula. Basically, we drove
east across the upper part of Northland, and then headed north out onto a long
elbow-shaped peninsula covered in farmland (hence the happy sheep
pictures). Turned before we hit
the town of Rangiputa, and turned toward the Pacific – now we’re snuggled in the
car park at Puheke Hill (and I guess the 
beach might have the same name, we
can’t quite tell).
is now mostly a parking lot –
there were fish, suns, flowers, scenery, and abstract designs – just a
beautiful mosaic, and of course I had to take a bunch of photos of it. (There were two men sitting in front of
the mosaic, one being an older man in a wheelchair eating his lunch, the other
a 
middle-aged man smoking. They
both asked if I needed them to move – I said no, thank you though, I can just
photograph around you – and I’m a retired art teacher who did mosaic murals
with my students the last several years, so I just love this mural. They laughed, agreed it was 
beautiful,
and continued watching me photograph the entire thing.)
So – Richard and I
formulated a plan. I wanted to go
north to Cape Reigna, the northern most tip of the North Island and where the
Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. Richard wanted to head east to the Bay of Islands. We compromised with the Karikari
Peninsula. Basically, we drove
east across the upper part of Northland, and then headed north out onto a long
elbow-shaped peninsula covered in farmland (hence the happy sheep
pictures). Turned before we hit
the town of Rangiputa, and turned toward the Pacific – now we’re snuggled in the
car park at Puheke Hill (and I guess the 
beach might have the same name, we
can’t quite tell).
Puheke Hill is a small
volcano that, apparently, is extinct.
(I’m never sure if they really are extinct, since occasionally they come
back alive. Zombie volcanoes.) Anyway, this small volcano stands guard over sand dunes and then a several-mile-long beach of soft white sand littered with tiny sea shells.
The Pacific
is aqua blue at this beach, at least the shallow area is, then it fades quickly
to deeper blue. There are strange
rocky outcroppings making lovely tide pools for chitons, limpets, barnacles,
oysters, even a few fish and some skittery crabs – 
and also hiding a secondary
beach beyond. This is a wide
beach, like Ninety Mile Beach, and we managed to get here at what seems to be
low tide. The high water mark is
probably 25-30 feet up from the low tide – or so it appears. Anyway, we saw ONE person on the beach,
but he left. We seem to have this
entire area to ourselves.
We took a long walk on the
beach, never did hit the other end – after about 2 miles or so, we turned
around and came back because it was beginning to drizzle.
We have food and water for a
few days, books to read, no internet, and we’ll probably try to climb the
volcano tomorrow if it 
isn’t rainy.
And if we can find the path.
isn’t rainy.
And if we can find the path.
IVAN - a couple of chitons for you!!!
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