Hamilton to Kawhia and Aotea

After a day spent in Hamilton doing bits and pieces and time spent catching up with grandchildren Vanessa, Theo and Gabriella, we left town via Te Uku.

Bruce really wanted to get up close and personal with the Te uku wind farm. However, on the way to the wind farm was Bridal Veil Falls so it seemed criminal not to go there. Bruce and I had been there years before so it was time for a refresher.

The track to the falls was easy going and quite short. The falls were beautiful but we did not want to spend the time walking to the bottom of the falls as we had other places we wanted to be.

We had lunch at the viewing platform for the wind farm and although we could see several of the wind turbines,theywereavvery long wayaway Bruce was keen to do the walk into the wind farm so we drove to where the track started. We got a better view of the turbines from here, but they still seemed to be much further than a gentle walk away. The photo below was taken from the carpark. We decided that this was as close as we were going to get, so continued on the road.

We continued along the road we had started on to get to the wind farm and the falls, and it was just Judy’s luck that it was her day for driving, because what followed was about 35km of metal roads, and she really is not a fan! However, the roads were in pretty good condition and there was very little oncoming traffic.

The road eventually travelled alongside the Aotea Harbour which was not very impressive at first glance as it appeared to be very brown and muddy. I think the water must have been quite shallow here because when the tide goes out it is all mudflats.

The road eventually left Aotea Harbour and went on along the shores of Kawhia Harbour, which is where we planned to spend the night. We had a quick look around the township first.

Bruce was pretty keen on having west coast fish and chips for tea, but some locals told us which was the best place to get them, and that was shut. We therefore continued onto the camp for the night. We had our choice of spots as we were the only people staying there that night. When we arrived it was a lovely water view, but a few hours later, when the tide went out it was a glorious view of mudflats.

In the morning we took off for a good look around the area. We had another look at the township and the harbour, and then drove over the hill towards the ocean beach. The view from the top of the hill was spectacular.

The ocean beach had the usual acreas and acres of huge sand dunes. Judy tried to slide down the biggest one on her bum but unfortunately it really needed a sled to be effective. We had a long walk on the beach and got a good view of the entrance to the harbour. The dogs thought they were in heaven with so much space to run in and so much sand to dig holes in.

After our walk we then drove on to the main township of Aotea. This was a very small little place with only about 5 permanent resident households, but all the properties looked well maintained and there were some very posh houses up on the hill. The sand dunes at Aotea are across the harbour and are deemed to be a sacred place due to Maori burial sites.

The final stop in our discovery tour of the area was the the little bay of Te Waitere. It was a sleepy, scenic little place, with very little beach, and a cute little wharf with not much else.

I did manage to get a couple of great photos of birds though.

The final part of our discovery tour of the area was the Oparau Road house, on the main road out of town. We stopped there for a bit of fuel and and an icecream. Other places may have their fancy fences with bras on them, or hub caps, or padlocks, but Oparau has fences with bicycles.