Maui Gas, Patea and Wainui Beach

Cape Egmont was able to be seen without rain this morning, although the mountain remained invisible. The rain did not look as if it would be gone for long so we hit the road again, heading south and covering the same road as we did yesterday. This time though, we intended to stop in at the Maui Gas Plant which we drove past yesterday.

It only took us about 20 minutes to get there  and once again we were the only ones stopped there, although looking at the visitor’s book, someone had been there earlier in the day. The plant is a mass of pipes and it is hard to believe that they all have a purpose and a destination.

The flare was burning brightly and Bruce managed to catch a good photograph of that.

The visitor’s centre was open, but unattended. It had a scale model of the whole plant with explanations about what part is used for what purpose. There were two models of the Maui Gas platform as well with explanations of what part is used for what. There were also clear diagrams on the walls of the exploration process.

There was also a model of the escape craft should there be a disaster on the Maui Gas Platform.

Next on our visit list was the town of Patea, as well as Patea Beach which, until today, I did not know existed. The town of Patea was bigger than I expected but clearly there is quite a lot of deprivation here. I would not put Oscar or Hunter to live in some of the houses that clearly had people living in them.

There were two features of the township that impressed me. One was the wooden steepled Catholic Church that looked just lovely.

The second was the whalebone structure in a park in the centre of town.

We did not linger though , choosing instead to continue on down to the beach.

The beach is like most on this coast –  a river meeting the Tasman Sea, black sand and dunes, breakwaters and rough seas, and a shore line littered with driftwood and timber. The forestry industry say they do not contribute to damaging the environment, but it is not what we see.

There was a solitary man fishing, but not appearing to pull anything in; and we could hear a jet boat nearby but were not able to see it. This was also a place for freedom camping and it was disappointing toi see human excrement in the dunes when there are public toilets available.

We left Patea and headed on to Wainui Beach which was to be our stopping place for the night. We were so surprised by the park. It covered a large area and was available for freedom campers for up to 70 days at a time, at an off peak rate of $5 per night. The area is mown and  all on sandy soils so no getting stuck. There were 5 motorhomes camping here tonight. We chose our spot for the night and were just going to go for a walk when it started to rain so we came back to the van. When it stopped. Bruce thought he would try his luck with a walk but again it rained so he and the dogs came back pretty wet.

The night was pretty blustery – strong winds and some heavy showers and when we first woke up it was still raining but it blew over fairly quickly and we were able to take the dogs for a good walk on the beach.

Believe it or not we also found walnuts washed up on this beach. What really amused me though was a speed limit sign balanced on some rough rocks where no vehicle would be able to go.

We were sorry to leave this magic place. If we had not had commitments to be in a certain place on a certain date, we would probably have stayed longer.