More Paua Pictures

 

 

 

 

Part One
Last weekend we went to Paua for a couple of nights camping. It is a small peninsular that sticks out into the Parengarenga harbour on the East Coast about 100km North of Kaitaia. It is a special place to me on account of being very beautiful, remote, unpopulated, clean and full of interesting plants and animals. Just around the corner on the harbour is the most northern settlement of New Zealand - Te Hapua.

Paua is reknowned for its strong winds and the campsite is a field on the edge of the estuary with no real shelter from these strong winds. Can you see where this one is going? The happy campers that left town on Saturday were Patrick, Stuart, their friend Lance and myself. We spent hours gathering bits of gear from where it had all been stored, spent more time trying to squeeze it into the Capella. The petrol station was heaving with tourists and Pak'N'Save was likewise busy as. We stopped at Te Kao store for the obligatory icecream and to pick up the key to get into the field. They only charge $5 per night per vehicle, so it is possibly the cheapest campsite we have ever paid to stay on.

On arrival we found the field less busy than I had expected, given that camping over the New Year is a great NZ tradition. We selected a site close to the boat ramp so as to be able to launch the kayak easily. I noted that a)the other tents were clustered around what shelter there was - in the form of a couple of small mounds and b) that our tent was a lot bigger than the others.

Tent erection is one of those activities fraught with stress especially when the conditions are in any way non-ideal. In this case I was the sole adult and some of the helpers were not as co-operative as they might have been. Added to that I soon realized that our trusty tent had suddenly gone grey, it was old and worn with a tear here, a bent pole there and a few fastenings that were broken. We bought it for 100 quid from a wharehouse in Blackburn in 2002. And did I mention that it was windy? Not a gentle sea-breeze playing with us, but a persistent canvas flapping, no-messing proper Far North wind.

Well, the tent was finally erected and looked like it would cope. The gear was unloaded and stashed away and it was play time. Lovely view an expanse of sand uncovered by the low tide, a deep channel and the white sands of Kokota in the background separating us from the Pacific Ocean. The boys were happy playing in the sand, making fortifications and getting wet. It was warm and clean and very lovely.

Stuart decided that he was going to be chef that night and we started to assemble the cooking gear. Pans, plate, onions, mince, spagetti, gas bottle and stove. Something was not quite right, but I could not put my finger on it. Then it clicked! The gas bottle needed to be connected to the burner by a small innocuous looking tube that at that precise moment was attached to the other gas bottle on our deck back in Kaitaia. Duh!

We had our evening meal up at Waitiki Landing, which is a service area that will be familiar to those of you who have been to the light house at the Cape. The lad who served us was in my science class at Te Hapua, and he very kindly let me use the phone to ring Chantelle to ask her to bring said tube next day when she was going to join us.