Sunday morning, we had decided to leave Manganese Point. To continue on to other places in and around Whangarei. We had, however not taken notice of the warning signs at the entry to the campsite warning large vehicles and also front-wheel drive vehicles about road conditions. After a rainstorm Saturday night the road conditions were not great, and we failed to get up the hill 3 times. The traction control was going crazy, and the wheels were just spinning. Thankfully another camper who had arrived with his caravan and 4WD offered to tow us out, somewhat embarrassing but the tow hook was connected, and he pulled us up the driveway. The bottle of wine offered in payment was refused so an extra glass of us tonight. What a nice man.

From Manganese Point we decided to proceed to Pataua South and the Treasure Island Camping ground. And what a treasure it has turned out to be, only $25 for the night for the 2 of us with power, water and a dump station. Finding a dry spot was not easy, but the camp manager was most helpful in finding a place big and dry enough for the van. With the truck parked, we went for a walk to explore the area, firstly walking up the hill on the seaward side of the van

What a glorious view, and although we did not walk all the way to the top, we still climbed a fair distance up it. Back down for a spot of lunch and then off to explore the “town” A really peaceful coastal settlement with lots of locals and I guess visitors here for the weekend and school holidays. We saw an open home and decided to pop in and have a viewing of what turned out to be an adorable 2 bedroom batch that the agent told us would sell in the $200’s, but leasehold land with a ground rent of $16000pa, we thought that was quite expensive but glorious place. This was the view from the deck.

Pataua South is separated from the north side by a footbridge or a massive drive so you would want to be sure which side you wanted unless you were transporting all the stuff across the bridge.

Just a beautiful place, maybe we might spend a couple of days here.

If you would like to see all the places we have visited click here

If you would like to see the ratings of the places we have stayed click here