GYPSY GIGOLO JOURNAL #31

Hi De Hi Campers.
Here we are again, off on another adventure.
This is the beginning of the third journey around the country.
It seemed appropriate to start again at the northern tip, so here I am at Cape Reinga explaining to my fellow adventurer, Rowan (Stanley) Forbes, which way is up.

The Houhora Hotel lays claim to being the northern most drinking establishment in the land.
It was compulsory for Stanley and I to stop and sample their wares.

Stanley was determined to explore the waterways of the Far North and courageously launched his rubber duck at the notoriously dangerous Houhora Heads.

The rubber duck proved to be a somewhat cumbersome piece of exploration paraphernalia, and filled up most of the passage way of the Bus With No Name.
Each stop necessitated extricating the bloody thing from the bus and then stuffing it back in again each time we set off.

A nostalgic return to The Hokianga yielded this historic little gem at Kohukohu. Stanley is standing on Kohukohu’s world famous stone bridge that was built in 1866 from Sydney sandstone brought as ballast in early timber ships.

Second phase of the Far North adventure was to participate in the 90 Mile Beach Lion Red Snapper Classic fishing competition.

Dan Watson fancied his chances of winning the big prize, so each day before dawn for 5 days we drove along the beach in Wat’s 4WD searching for a likely fishing spot.

Fish that won the prizes were all caught before sunrise each morning - we couldn’t even catch cold!

Exploring was much more fun than standing waist deep in surging breakers, so we drove up the beach and out to the highway via the Te Paki stream.
Wat is texting Coastguard our GPS co-ordinates in case we get marooned in the stream.

We successfully navigated the treacherous Te Paki stream, so good reason to celebrate at the Houhora pub.

After all this frantic activity it was time for a bit of R & R at the Far North’s best kept secret location – Maitai Bay on the Karikari Peninsula.

The plan is to winter over in the north, and then think about the south island again in spring.

Thanks for watching.

Good luck to all your families.