Offishully Scenic – The Crowthers (re)Tired in Kaikohe

Otto’s and Manuel’s Image Expeariament

I took some photos on the way back home from lunch at Ruawai on May Day, wending from Arapohue to Tangiteroria. There was still quite a bit of flooding after three week’s of “Drought-breaking” rain.
Instead of loading them into a Gallery as per usual, I hunted out a Linux app that will produce slideshows and render them as a video. And I included the donor photos as well as the usual stitched panoramas.

Oh! Fragious joy! NOT!

First teach the elderly brain how to drive the app. Then teach it how to add subtitles in YouTube. Then add sound from a Creative Commons source. Anyhoo, anyhoo: several tries (MUCH) later…
(Oops. Click on the CC at the bottom of the YouTube player to show the subtitles…)

Finally found the Round Tuit…

And got the camera closer to the wee church you can see across the Hokianga Harbour from the Rawene foreshore. (And it’s not so “wee” when you are standing alongside it.)

Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Motukaraka Point
Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Motukaraka Point

Light the blue touch paper and stand clear.

We hastied back to the barge ramp and got on the Bridge Over Placid Waters
We hastied back to the barge ramp and got on the Bridge Over Placid Waters

The distant view of Rawene and Motukaraka Point

The church from mid-harbour, much closer than when you are eating fission chips on Rawene foreshore

Everybody ready to race up the hill to Rawene Takeaways

Visit From A JAFA Rellie – Day 6

From home to Waipapa, then on North on SH10. Round the Tourist Route from SH10 to Whangaroa, with visits to Matauri Bay, Te Ngae Bay, Wainui and Mahinepua. Drove as far as the road goes around Whangaroa Harbour (I had to apologise for leaving the amphibian at home when Grant wanted to go further). Then back to SH10 to Kaeo to Donna’s Mad Hatter’s Café for lunch.

Grant had to sit in the BIG CHAIR for the traditional photo.

After lunch, reverse direction of travel as far as Kapiro Road, then followed the signs Rangihoua Heritage Park, the site of the first Mission Settlement in New Zealand.

As it took about an hour to walk the track and read all the information DOC has placed about the site neither of the Crowther brothers were much popular with the Librarian, sat in the car; but then neither of us had actually asked her to be a klingon and banish Grant to the back seat for the week. So there was not much sympathy given by anyone to anybody.

*Bay of Islands from Mission Station site*

*Down here, round the corner, bit further. Then **back up** – that was the bit that Grant wasn’t so enthused by.*

Visit From A JAFA Rellie – Day 5

We left home on a mission to demonstrate to Grant that our Northland roads are not as bad as their reputation would lead you to believe. So we left home, up past Lake Omapere and Okaihau Golf Course and over Wiroa Road, past Puketi Forest to join SH10 just before Kaeo.

Carried on North, then side tripped into Mangonui and to the Rangikapiti Pa Reserve for the massive view. Back in the car and on to Cable Bay Store for lunch.

After lunch we hung left at the end of the Taipa Bridge and through Oruru to the Bush Fairy Dairy at Peria. And begorrah! We met the fairy!

From there our route home was up through Fern Flat Road (one of our more “marginal”) then across to Mangamuka Bridge and home.

A few clips of a couple hundy metres of Fern Flat Road, complete with teensy surprise right at the end.

Visit From A JAFA Rellie – Day 4

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?

Visit From A JAFA Rellie – Day 3

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.

*Mongrels have apparently invented a new game called let’s deface the Cape Reinga signpost. (And somebody has finally removed the unofficial Dargaville sign that some wag installed a few years ago.)*

***“El Puku”, famous well fed Mexican gangster***, *right profile.*

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.

Visit From A JAFA Rellie – Day 2

The Bay of Islands beckoned. So we chugged off and had a shufti around Kerikeri, then Haruru, Paihia, Opua and ferry across to Okiato and Russell. Compulsory trip up to Flagstaff Hill, with us just running ahead of some damp weather:

*Shady-looking former cocky pondering how big a torch with how much gas would be needed to drop the flagstaff in a post wood and axe world.*

*Panorama (from cellphone) looking seawards.*

From Russell we headed back to Kawakawa via Waikare Road, then SH1 and SH12 to home.

Visit From A JAFA Rellie – Day 1

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.