Date: February 2026 - Northland, NZ

We arrived back in Aotearoa (NZ) in January and after a couple of weeks in Whangarei at our dear friend Christine's home, our car was back on the road and ready for an adventure.

We decided to head north for a couple of weeks, as we then needed to be back in Whangarei for Christine's knee op. So we headed to a favourite spot of ours, Maitai Bay on the Karikari peninsula. It's a DOC site (department of conservation) and facilities are limited to toilets and cold showers but it is truly beautiful. We spent lazy days walking the beach on each side of the peninsula, and swimming in the bay. Alex even went in which is quite amazing! A road trip and reprovision took us north to Kaitai and then the 90 mile beach where we collected our allowed quota of 300 tuatua. Tuatua are a mid sized clam with a delicious sweet flavour and we had delicious tuatua fritters for dinner.

With the weather taking a turn for the worse we headed a short distance south to Manganui and stayed the night with Christine's brother Ross, who has an amazing house overlooking the sea. Unfortunately the weather really did set it so we couldn't really see the view, but Ross cooked some amazing sausages ffrofrom the local award winning butchery and we had a great evening catching up.

Our next stop was a little south again to Taupo Bay and a beautiful surf beach. It was close to Waitangi day(a holiday in NZ that commemorates the signing of the1840 treaty between the British Government and the Maori Chiefs) and it was a busy weekend on the campsite so we headed off for a hike up Dukes Nose. This is not a hike for the faint hearted. It's starts at Totara North and meanders up a stream, with a couple of crossings before the the fun starts. The last part of the ascent is up a rock face with a metal railing to hold on to but the footholds are few and far between. We like a technical climb and the view from the top certainly made the climb and the 5.5 hour return hike worthwhile.

All too soon it was time to return to Whangarei, via Marston Estate Vineyard for some of their exceptional chardonnay.