Bay of Islands

My last few days in NZ took me to the Bay of Islands area for a weekend tramp. A group of six of us drove to the small settlement of Rawhiti, north east of Russell, where we stayed Friday night in a backpackers' hostel of sorts. It comprised a collection of rather old caravans; the toilet facilities were fairly basic with just a mossie screen door. Still it was right on the beach as we saw in the early morning sunshine.

The Cape Brett Track which we walked started 1km from here. This was an undulating walk (we clocked 1100m of ascent that day) through the bush but with glimpses of the coastline on either side of the peninsula from time to time. These would have been better if the sunshine has remained but the cloud came in for much of the day giving some rain. However it was not too wet and by mid afternoon we were back in sunshine.

After about seven hours walking we arrived at the Cape Brett lighthouse. The DOC (Dept of Conservation) "hut" where we stayed differed from their normal huts as it is actually the former lighthouse-keepers' house. It is below the main lighthouse but about 45m above the sea. We read that there had been occasions when the spray from breaking waves reached up to the house! It was agreat place to spend a night.

Sunday morning we retraced our steps for a couple of hours before descending a short distance to Deepwater Cove where we had booked a water taxi to take us back to Rawhiti. Fortunately it was calm morning or we would have had to walk out the way we had come in. Then a fairly direct return to Auckland for my flight to Sydney.

Next morning I took a short flight to Hervey Bay in southern Queensland where I am now, staying with friends, Phil and Eleanor.