Ocean Beach, Northland, New Zealand
Whangarei Head
- A drive along Whangarei Heads road is one of the most scenic road trips imaginable that is what they say and that is why we stay here
Good question: is NZ an
island??
- What is the difference between a continent and an island?? as per definition: a continent is so big, that it is not considered an island: which makes Australia the smallest continent it is 3x larger then Greenland which is the largest island
- That makes NZ two large islands: a North Island and the larger South Island (they are both in the top 18 large islands over 100.000 km2: a few of them are in Canada like Baffin islands, Victoria island (NWT), Ellesmere Island (Nunavut), Neufoundland. Other big islands are New Guinea, Borneo, Madagaskar, Sumatra, Great Britain, Cuba and Iceland
- By the way Vancouver Island is Number 43 in size – guess we are not that big
We wake up to rain
This morning when we woke up it
rained – and was super misty – so we decided to sleep a bit longer (perfect) –
then had a lazy start to the day, but it looks like that the weather improves
and so we decided to go for a walk.
A “sweaty” walk along the Shore
at Whangarei Head
- By the way we are in the Beam Head / Te Whara conservation trust: Sir Edmund Hillary said that “a new century has dawned and with it the realization that we are at the crossroads – the planet’s survival is in our hands, and each one of us must contribute to the process of renewal and restoration. With our help the forest at Beam Head will flourish again and be filled with bird songs”
- They brought back birds and skinks which vanished
- Beam Head was once part of a volcano which erupted 20 Mill years ago, it also was once an island
- In the Beam head reserve is the largest coastal broadleaf forest in Northland
- If you come at night you can see a Kiwi – and this is the reason why Dogs are not allowed
Only a 7 Min drive to the parking
lot at Urquhart Bay where we started out to along the coastline: first
going into the grassy land where the cows are – so careful on where you put
your feet. Nice views and soon the drizzle started – so Camera in the Backpack
and the ponchos out. We came by a Memorial to Sir Edmund Hillary and then we
got hot: Ponchos off.
Next stop was at the Gun
Emplacement: where they still had the old concrete buildings – which was
kind of cool, the best thing was we could even go inside one of them (they made
a little board to go over the fence (so the cows can’t go in) – because the
whole area was surrounded by beautiful black cows and they are super friendly.
By now it started drizzling again (yes ponchos on).
- They were part of the Beam Head gun Battery built to defend the port and started to operate in 1942 when the Japanese came through the Pacific – moving southwards
- They only fired 3 shots from here and all were done to test it, one of them went 12 miles
- The complex was built so it looks like a farmhouse with out-buildings. The Battery operation post was disguised as a rock outcropping: they blasted it and put it in a rock and put more rocks on top of it
One thing which so surprised us
all the time and which we so love is the super green we can see everywhere – it
is so pretty. We went downhill into some tropical forest and then it went up –
the good thing was that whenever we stopped and turned around the view was
amazing – the other side was that we were sweating like pigs because it was so
hot and humid (Good thing it is cloudy today).
Once we came on the top of the
hill we could see also down onto the bay and the green pastures – this was so
pretty, we were thinking what we should do and decided to head through the
pretty farmland with its amazing views (perfect choice), until we came to
another bench which gave us super pretty views onto Smugglers Cove (by now we
are so sweaty we don’t want to go down and up again).
- In the 1860s there was a custom set up in Whangarei with many ships coming from New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. But often the Schooners stopped at Smugglers Cove and put the Whisky from New Caledonia in the caves here or buried them in the sand, then smuggled them later at night in – to avoid paying taxes
- It is thought because so many Scotts settled here that Whisky was high in Demand
Noon shower & shopping
We decided to head back and
shower!!! Now we feel fresher and can hit the local supermarket, which is super
small, but we did find some frozen pie for supper.
Waves at Ocean beach
Everyone talks about Ocean beach
and how beautiful it is, even if it is a bit cloudy the strong sun here makes
it nice and warm and we decided to head there. A short drive and then starts a
short walk through the sand and sand dunes and we come to this spectacular
beach where the waves are crashing in. Paul went into the water to jump the
waves – Gine took pictures of him and then later walked along the beach. We
talk to the lifeguards, watch the people and simply love it to listen to the
waves – see them crashing against the shore and the rocks. It is so pretty
here.
T
he Black Oystercatcher:
- They are endemic to New Zealand – as they do not migrate, the population stays on the same island
- The breed and nest on sandy coasts, they avoid gravel beaches
- They are never further than 30 km away from the coast
- They don’t eat two hours of either side of the high tide and they eat at night, they find the food with random probing with their beaks: they eat molluscs which they break open, crustaceans and small fish
- Until 1922 humans shot them to eat them, as well dogs, cats and possums preyed on them
Sunshine in the evening
It’s time to head back (and yes,
another shower) – and after supper we enjoy the beautiful sunshine and the
amazing scenery we have the perfect place.
RVing in NZ??
I may should mention there is a RV
Park right next door, also there are some super old and weird RV's some look like old shepherds carts on wheels, we passed one which was super top heavy and had to drive super slow, as well they look like self-made. Now we are super happy because we haven’t rented an
RV:
- it would be small to stay when it rains as it does at the moment and uncomfortable in the humid air,
- the free parking on the parking lots like ocean beach – are really only standing on the parking lot and no you are not on the beach,
- we haven’t seen anything where you can dumb and refill,
- parking would have been difficult for shopping in the town
- some things we could not do with the RV as the roads are not wide enough and not RV friendly
- we couldn't have daily showers in the humidity and salty water
- we wouldn't have wifi for our laptops and as Paul's phone doesn't has wifi we would need a NZ sim card and lots of data also for planning
- the “RV parks” are big grassy areas, no privacy, no electricity, no water, no picnic tables
- and let’s not forget on how pricy it is
Why is the sun so strong in
NZ?
- Ozone (O3) is a naturally occurring gas in the stratosphere around 25 km above earth: we call it the ozone layer, this layer is there to protect us from harmful UV rays. The amount of UV which reaches us depends on the ozone concentration
- In winter low temperatures over the Antarctica form polar strathospheric clouds – some chemicals are destructive to ozone and the ozone hole grows. The Antarctic Ozone hole is south of NZ and does not have a large effect on NZ (this is what the officials say)
- In summer NZ often exceeds an UV Index of 11 (the threshold of extreme UV levels they had several times UV indexes of 14-18 around NZ) – by the way they say it can be even worth on the South Island where you can get a sunburn within 10 Min
- NZ has naturally higher UV levels compared to similar latitudes. In NZ the UV level is 40x higher than in North America: it is strongest during NZ summer Dec/Jan – as the Ozon layer thins during this time, absorbing less UV rays
- The clean air in NZ means the UV light is less likely being scattered by airborne pollution and more UV reaches the ground (looks like pollution is good for something)
2025-05-23