The DOC (department of conservation) CAMP GROUND WAS VERY REMOTE. There were no kitchen facilities, grills or flush toilets here. There was beautiful peace and quite.




The camp ground is at the end of a long road thru a cattle pasture (red and black Angus and there was a bull!).

Then hiking in your gear over a massive dune.

The Ranger have us directions:

Go thru the paddock and come to the bee hives. Open the gate and the car park is just before you get to the beach.

The paddock was a herd of 200 cattle curiously eyeing us. There were about 10 bee hives and then the other gate.

To our surprise there were 2 cars parked there.

We slogged our bikes thru the sand and locked them to a mangrove tree on the beach. We took our panniers and made our way over the dune to the camp site.


The bonus about remote camp is the wild wild life. We were woken up at about 3am by a possum fight out side our tent. To us it sounded like raccoons.

What the hell is that?

It sounds like raccoons, but there is no such thing at raccoons in New Zealand. It must be a possum. - brushtail possum

We went back to sleep with a comforting knowledge that there are no large man eating mammals New Zealand.

The following day in anticipation of a long ride into Waitangi we had an early start just before dawn.

It was a long day and a hard climb all day.