On to Dargaville

About a week ago (Saturday 11th December) we left Spirits Bay and headed South. On the way we stopped at a Kauri shop just north of Kaitaia. It has a spiral staircase up the *inside* of a Kauri log. Really neat. After a bit too long of a stop at Kaikohe, we didn't get to Opononi until evening. Unfortunately, we had quite a bit of trouble locating the place where we were going to stay. The GPS coordinates were incorrect, as were the directions. We ended up on a dodgy narrow dirt track, and had to do a tricky 3-point turn between two blind curves using a steep farm track. After a bit of stress, I finally just typed in the address to google (once we had reception) and it located it fine. It is a pleasant spot overlooking the Hokianga harbour.

On Sunday we were all too tired to do much of anything. The kids tried a bit of fishing in the afternoon after having seen quite a few fish earlier in the day, but only managed to catch two lots of seaweed, the back of Esther's shirt, and a rusty iron bar. There were a couple of small single-room shacks on the land, one of which was occupied by a guy, and his girlfriend (?). They proceeded to argue very loudly together about every hour or two. I wasn't trying to listen, but the argument always seemed to be the same. They didn't stop to sleep either: 11:30pm, 2am, 3am, 5:30am, and I probably missed a few! It was a blessing that the kids managed to sleep through it. There were three other couples staying there, each with a small house bus. They weren't happy about the situation either.

After a lousy sleep on Sunday night, we decided we had to move on, and stopped for lunch at Waipoua Forest. We did the walk to Tane Mahuta, the largest (living) tree in New Zealand, and then a little further along did the walk to the Yakas Kauri (you can touch this monster, but it takes over half an hour to walk there). It was mostly overcast, but a hot, humid day - weather that isn't experienced in Christchurch. We were all grateful that the air-conditioning had been fixed in the car. Late afternoon saw us arrive at our destination - the back paddock of a guy who lives in Aranga (about half an hour's drive north of Dargaville). No phone (or anything else) coverage.

We went to Dargaville on Tuesday, and somehow managed to join the library and get out over a dozen books and a few DVDs (including Toy Story 3 - had just arrived). It looks like we'll be here for a week or so. The afternoon and evening was spent reading and watching DVDs.

On Wednesday we woke up to drizzle. Unfortunately, our extender awning (no sides, just roof) collects water, and it had a couple of large bucketfuls in it. A blessing in disguise though, because we just realised that we had run out of fresh water! We poured it carefully off the awning, and most of it managed to get stored in a bucket and the chilly bin, with the remainder hitting the grass or James. I then lowered the awning a bit so that the rain would run off instead of pool. We thought we would go for a bit of an explore, and drove down the road to Kai Iwi Lakes - three sand-dune lakes. We decided to go for a swim, even though it looked like rain was coming. The lake, which has a wide, shallow shelf, was surprisingly warm and we had a fun time swimming out to the buoys from Pine Beach (which has no pines anymore, they were all recently cut down.) On the way back home we took a diversion down to Mangonui Bluff where the prevailing westerly has twisted the trees into hunchbacked shapes and a small collection of baches huddle together. There was a rather steep 4wd track ("Council Maintenance Ends Here" read the sign) down onto a wild west-coast beach with soft sand and a nearly full tide. The family (one child in particular) were freaking out a bit, so I did a donut and headed back up the steep track only to get stuck in soft sand. Reversed a bit, and then gunned it up the sand and on to the bouncy 4wd track and up onto the normal (council-maintained) road. Great fun. Except the large container in the back that was half full of water had lost about 10 litres and was now about a quarter full.

Thursday. The rain started about 6am and has been going pretty much ever since. I rigged up a wool-yarn drain for the awning and filled up a couple of buckets of fresh water, but our black-water tank needed emptying, so we left the tent pitched where it was, packed up the caravan a bit and headed into Dargaville to empty the waste tanks, and fill the fresh water tank (in the pouring rain). The first dump place wasn't suitable for the length of our vehicle or the waste hose fitting on our vehicle. The second dump place was even less suitable for our vehicle, but a bit of creative manoeuvring (touching the fence with the caravan) saw us (actually 'me') manage to do the job. Caravan living certainly requires a bit more thought - Receptacles you want filled (fresh water, gas bottle, fuel tank, bank balance, fridge) are always getting emptied, and those you want empty (black water, gray water) are always getting filled!