It’s the 23rd December and Dora, Roger, Becky and Greg leave Wellington on an only slightly delayed evening Jetstar flight to Auckland, where they pick up a suspiciously nice car suspiciously smoothly and stock up for CHRISTMAS in PIHA!
[Roger] We arrived at our ‘eco retreat’ Christmas accommodation in the dark, spooked by some drying washing next to a motorhome in a grassy car park. After the approaching shadowy figure who flung open the car door turned out to be our host, we calmed down. A boardwalk led us to a sweet-smelling compost loo, outdoor shower and kitchen, and some (indoor) comfy beds that left us well-rested for the following days’ festivities.
On Christmas Eve I am used to the compulsory ‘family walk’ and some carols in an arctic church. This year, however, we woke up to shorts-appropriate weather, showered outside and wandered over to the ‘Bach’ (holiday home), where Dora’s extended family was stationed. After a delicious whitebait fritter lunch (expertly prepared gluten-free by Andrew), we spend the day knocking over pieces of wood in ‘Viking Chess’ (Kubb), climbing ‘Lion Rock’ to enjoy views over Piha, and taking a chilly dip in a hidden pool halfway up the Kite Kite Waterfall. Dinner was prawns, venison sausages and BBQ lamb, followed by an apple and plum crumble (the pudding a joint effort from the four of us). Had the food peaked too soon?!
On Christmas Day we had a mini-Christmas in our eco retreat, since our inner-child couldn’t possibly wait until later in the day before opening some presents and consuming too much chocolate. We then headed over to the family bach for a champagne and a pancake-laden breakfast (expertly cooked by Dora and Becky). Christmas day passed by swimmingly, with a swim in the sea between two very close-together flags, games of Kubb, secret and selfish Santa presents, enjoying Sylvie’s bevy of presents, and another trip up Lion Rock. Becky and Dora made an excellent Kiwi-British fusion pavlova, which together with some excellent South Island port finished off a belly-breaking dinner of baked salmon, Craigend slow-barbequed lamb, Craigend new potatoes and two incredible salads involving peas, mint, fresh broad beans, cauliflower, pomegranate seeds and goats cheese. As the evening drew to a close we Skyped UK families, who were only just waking up for the start of their day.
Boxing Day dawned later than usual, possibly because of the port. We bid goodbye to Dora’s relatives and helped clean up the leftovers before hitting the road north to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. On the way we ventured into the depths of the Waipu caves to see huge ceilings of glow worms, which is a surprisingly large tick off Greg’s bucket list. We arrived at Paihia around dusk, to be greeted by our friendly AirBnB hosts and their friendly, if slightly blind, dog ‘Jack’, and an indoor toilet and shower.
The next morning we were up early to board the Opua to Russell car ferry, driving on to meet a water taxi in Oke Bay. Out we zoomed to the north end of Cape Brett. The water-taxi driver [once Roger had had a chat to her] kindly took us via the cavernous ‘cathedral’ cave and the famous ‘hole in the rock’, through which pretty large boats – including ours – could pass. We were then deposited at the bottom of a rather large hill, which set the scene for the day.
Called ‘undulating’ by the information boards, the Cape Bret track is better described as ‘bloody hilly’. Hot weather made it particularly hard work. We’d therefore built up quite an appetite and a sweat by the time we reached Deep Water Cove, which was unfortunately infested with jelly fish and divers. Undeterred, we ate our Christmas-ham-and-avocado sandwiches and marched onwards to a more secluded beach (reccied in March with James and Faye) for a cooling sea swim before the final leg back to the car. A(nother) BBQ refuelled us after what had been a gruelling, but fun, day.
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| Loo with a view |
December 28 saw Greg and I dive the Rainbow Warrier, which the French blew up a while back to stop Greenpeace protesting against their nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. It’s now an excellent habitat for sea creatures and at least one 70 year-old diver! Meanwhile, [Dora taking over here] Becky and I visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where in 1840 Maori and British representatives came to an agreement of sorts over land governing rights. It was an informative, passionate and moving tour from a Ngapuhi guide, from the story of Elizabeth II making the huge Kauri waka an HMS vessel, to her speech that New Zealand is “not one without the other” of her two founding peoples. After a marae-style ceremony, we were entertained inside the meeting house by a brilliant performance group.
In the evening, the divers and history-seekers re-joined for a drink on the verandah at the Swordfish Club in Russell, looking out through the Pohutukawa over the bay, and a pizza at Hone’s place.
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| View from the Swordfish Club verandah |
On our last morning in Paihia we had brunch on the ferry pier before driving south. We weren’t overly eager to get to our Auckland Airport Ibis Budget Hotel, so we detoured to the Kawakawa Hundertwasser toilets , Matapouri Beach and its busy mermaid pools where the GoPro got some action, a picnic spot with a view for the last of the Christmas leftovers, and Longview Winery for an interesting tasting including a now-$270 bottle of wine thanks to a Chinese takeover of the vineyard. We tried to stop at Sheep World too, but were sadly too late for a sheep show, emu feeding or eel feeding.
After dinner at old favourite The-Restaurant-Under-the-Ibis-that-does-suprisingly-good-food, we finished the last of the Torlesse Port, kept making inroads into the chocolate, and watched half of kiwi classic What We Do in the Shadows.
In the next post we'll take a kangaroo hop over to Australia for New Year's Eve!
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