DOC site at Whangaruru North right on the seas edge
We worked our way down the coast and stocked up with provisions at Kerikeri before crossing over on the ferry from Opua to Russell. We worked our way round a scenic drive, much of it unsealed roads but with magnificent views of bays and beaches we had only seen from the Bay of Islands. We crossed over to the other (East) coast at Whangaruru, another potential stop if we ever sail down the coast from the Bay of Islands to The Hauraki Gulf. We stayed at a lovely DOC site at Whangaruru North right on the seas edge - at high tide you could surf cast from the side of our tent we were so close! The site has plenty of taps for washing etc and also has a hand pump for the best water we have found so far. One previous group even returned with a small tanker and spent 4 hours filling it by hand to take back to Auckland to make beer. There is even a washing board and mangle by the beach.
Brian & Lynn Bulmer who are the current caretakers gave us a lot of advice on fishing in the area and we spent several hours chatting to them. It turned out his brother lives a couple of roads away from Jenny and Kev in Leeds - it is a small world! We spent a lot of the time fishing - surf casting, off the rocks and trolling. We did not catch a lot Pete had a couple of small snapper out of the surf the first morning and the morning we as we were packing to leave Kawahai came into the bay and we were advised to just cast lures into the area they were feeding and retrieve them (trolling) - it works and the Kawahai apparently will even fight over the fish shaped metal lures. Brian and Lynn each got one and so did both of us although mine was hardly worth keeping unlike Pauline's. We are at least learning to cast sensible distances although even our 8 foot rod is a bit short compared to a proper 12 foot surf casting rod. Overall a very pleasant stay where we learnt a lot more about fishing. A site we will definitely go back to although it can get busy earlier in the year - we were spoilt as we were only one of perhaps 6 groups and there must be 20 sea edge pitches plus a number of less desirable ones. We had a spectacular sunset before our final night under canvas giving a super ending to the years camping.