Otamure

After our short stay at Whananaki, we headed just a short distance away to a Department of Conservation camp at Otamure. Bruce and I had not stayed in a DOC Camp before so this was our first introduction, and we were converted! The camp is right on the water front, with a lot of sites, and good facilities. Our only complaint was that it was a little windy (I guess that was outside their sphere of control).

We elected to have a bit of down time at this camp, and I was able to get the paints out and get a bit creative.

This camp came with it’s own resident ducks who were very tame and were always there when it was time for us to eat! Tina and John decided that they were going to cook us dinner that night, so we were spoilt with a roast lamb meal with all the trimmings. Absolutely delicious.

The weather was a bit windy, and coming straight in off the beach, so no chance for fishing here, but I managed to wile away a bit of time with my paints, and we enjoyed our walks on the beach.

When we left there we started down memory lane for Bruce – looking at some of his childhood haunts. We had already been to see one of his parent’s houses in Whangarei, but now we called in to Teal Bay where he had spent many childhood holidays.

The beach was lovely and Bruce says it is largely unchanged from about 60 years ago.

After Teal Bay we stopped at the art gallery at Helena Bay. Bruce’s sister Jan had told us we had to stop there, and we were not disappointed. The gardens were beautiful and full of metal art.

Inside the gallery we found prints for sale from our artist friend Shirley Cresswell.

Our next stop for the night was to be at the Whangaruru Motorcamp. The North Island is not so endowed with facilities for motorhomers as the South Island is. Therefore we carefully plan our stops so we can fill up with water, dump our black water, do our washing etc.