With Christmas approaching we took leave of work early and drove north. Our plan was to spend some time camping in the glorious weather of a Northland summer while also spending a few days over Christmas at Keryn’s parents place. Keryn did mention that she had strong memories of Christmas at home being largely wet affairs, but we figured we’d see what happened. We stayed the first night in Turangi to break up the drive, choosing to again visit the A+ Backpackers (cheap, clean, arriving late not an issue). Next day we stopped in Hamilton and had good Mexican before I bought a wetsuit (always activities that go hand in hand I’m sure). There was more shopping done as we passed through Auckland before the final push towards Leigh and our destination at Goat Island Camping.
The campsite website describes itself as a free range campsite, and that it was. There weren’t a lot of people on site so we had a wealth of space to choose from to pitch our tent. Once settled in we got ourselves dinner and relaxed, taking in the lovely view while the temperature dropped and the cows in the nearby field had a mooing contest (calves running around having the time of their lives).
The next morning we were down to the beach and ready for some snorkelling. There were plenty of fish, though not as many as I recalled from my last visit here (years ago, probably when they were still encouraging feeding of the fish from the shore). Keryn spotted a small school of quid floating in a shallow area near the beach, eight tiny brown squid seemingly suspended in the water.
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
We took a drive and ended up having a lovely lunch at the quirky home of Morris & James pottery. The food was very tasty and the setting a beautiful courtyard that looked like a piece of Tuscany plonked down in rural New Zealand; all wooden beams, terracotta paving and vines.
Back to Goat Island we took a second snorkelling trip later in the day nearer high tide and found that there were many more jellyfish in the water and the current was much stronger. We did get to follow an eagle ray for a while as it swam over and through the seaweed, stopping every now and again to give me a chance to take photos which was nice. It was quite tiring second time around so we weren’t in the water long. Back up at the carpark the pohutukawa was in full bloom and in the larger trees on the hillside shags were nesting, the fledglings looking just about ready to leave the nest for good.
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
An evening drive gave us a chance to stretch our legs on a coastal path at Ti Point. The sunset was good, big clouds glowing orange above the fast flowing water. A pleasant view to end the day.
Photo by Brendon & Keryn
Plans for more snorkelling the next day were ruined by torrential rain. We unfortunately decided to have breakfast before taking the tent down and ended up struggling with a very wet tent in a proper downpour. Heading down to the beach to have a look we found the water now silted up with run-off from the very swollen stream so plans for the day were scratched and we drove north to Whangarei earlier in the day than planned.
