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Today’s Tuesday, so it must be time for the Tutukaka Coast. Started by heading through Orakau Road to Towai. Gotta look out for roaming stock, children, mad dogs, drugged pedestrians, oncoming traffic and other randoms.

There is a certified random in the clip below:

At Towai, right onto SH1, then through Hikurangi to Sandy Bay, Matapouri Bay, Tutukaka and Ngunguru for lunch at Salt Air Café. After lunch, on through Glenbervie then downtown Whangarei, Riverside Drive and up to Parihaka summit to go sight-seeing. Everybody in the car saw the “Road Closed” sign except Muggins Bruce.
So, back down the hill, head for the Bascule Bridge to get back to downtown – Road Closed!

Eventually found a route to “Outtatown” and off towards Titoki Store for ice cream, but first a quick side step to an extraordinarily low (drought) flow Wainui Falls.

Back home SH15, then start making dough for dins. Introduced the boy to fry bread. (How can you get to his age and still be a fry bread virgin?

By request of the non fare-paying customer, we took him to Te Rerenga Wairua. Not the mission it has been for the last year, because now it is SH1 all the way, and us Northlanders will enjoy that until the next tropical storm, when Mangamuka Gorge will no doubt close for another couple of years.

First stop was a shufti around Te Ahu in Kaitaia, a combi cinema, library, museum, visitor centre, council office with spectacular artwork (and very clean public thunderboxes.) An extremely well thought out public building.

Then onwards to Te Paki Station for a glimpse of the giant dunes. Grant declined the offer of a walk up the dunes: I thought he should have shown he was made of “sterner stuff”.

Finally the Cape. Fabulous weather, though hazy out to sea with the Three Kings just barely visible.

Route Home: backtrack to Pukenui Cafe for lunch. As always very good.
Then from Awanui to Ahipara via Sandhills Road for a slow trip to eyeball the beach, then via Broadwood and Mangamuka to home.

Little Brother has been threatening to come for a stay for some time, and he finally pitched up as a passenger with Dorothy and the Duchess. We fed them lunch, and talked bullshit, as families do, then the Duchess turned Dorothy south towards Papakura, and we cranked up the Bitsy Mitsy and started the guided tour of te Tai Tokerau.
Very fine performance by the Duchess, who learnt an important life lesson about standing under an Avocado tree while somebody is picking the fruit. She drove home with a bump on her noggin and a sore head.

We decided to go get an ice cream, because why not? Headed out towards Opononi, but the driver got distracted and cut through Waiotemarama Gorge Road to SH12 south of Omapere. Then back over the hill to Omapere and a walk out to the Signal Station site on South Head Hokianga. Back along the waterfront towards Opononi Fission Chips for an ice cream, but it was absolutely rammed by some carry-on happening outside the pub and we couldn’t get near the place. So we decided to head home to Kaikohe for ice cream. Via a trip over Koutu Loop Road for a shufti at the Koutu Boulders.