So after 2 days at Treasure island and supplies running low. We ventured into Whangarei to stock up on essentials. Making the first stop at the Warehouse, I should have taken a photo of the van parked across 4 car parks. Just as well the car park was relatively empty. It is something I am going to have to get used to with a vehicle that’s almost 9 metres long and 2.3 wide it does not exactly fit into the standard car park.

In fact, car parking became an issue at our next destination, the Whangarei Falls (above). At the same time, there is a great parking area with clean toilets etc., there was nowhere to park our beast, so we ended up parking on the road, there was another campervan also circling the car park with a similar issue, and that was much smaller than ours. You would think that with tourism exploding and campervans becoming commonplace on the road that local councils would look at this and try to set aside areas for us to park.

The lost part of the blog relates to a 5-year-old by the name of Liam, who Sarah and I found at the bridge pictured above. He had become separated from his family, thankfully Sarah had the mothers touch, and she managed to calm the poor boy down, and we set off to find his family. As we had not passed them coming down the side we descended they had to be on the other side, and sure enough, when we reached the top there, they were, and very glad to have the young fella back.

Wolley relates to Woolleys Bay our first ever night spent freedom camping, The beach is just past Matapouri Bay and was devoid of people when we arrived but now (5.30pm) there are about 10 vans here of all sorts. The camp area is set back a little from the beach just behind a small sand dune. Both of us put our feet into the water, and while they did not turn into instant ice blocks, it is still far too cold for a swim. The sea is also full of a red weed making the breaking waves appear blood red in some areas on the beach.

I don’t know what it is about Sarah and walking up hills to get a photo, but it’s worth it once we get there and this photo sort of shows how glorious the beach is. 3 days in a row now I have easily achieved my 10000 steps. We are close to the road, but I don’t think that will matter tonight as it seems like quite a quiet back road.

From here we will head >>>>>>that way, who knows we will see when we get there
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