... and then east towards the Bay of Islands. Our next stop was at the beautiful, sheltered Maitai Bay on the Karikari Peninsula. It's actually two bays, separated by a tiny mini-peninsular along which you can walk and get some great views, and from where I took this shot of Gill and two of the girls on the beach of the south-eastern of the bays. Another place which would be wonderful to spend some time at in the summer, but I'm sure the DOC campground is once again full to the brim in January.
Louise found a dead penguin, Hannah chased several oystercatchers, and Camilla investigated the rock overhangs.
From there we headed down and around the broad sweep of Doubtless Bay to the historic town of Mangonui (quite a different place from Mt Maunganui near Tauranga!). After a spell where Gill had to remove large numbers of very fine prickles from all the girls' feet - probably acquired in a rock cave at Maitai Bay - we walked around the interesting town on the Mangonui Heritage Trail. Hannah investigated the shingle beach left by the outgoing tide.
I got this shot of a stained glass window in St Andrew's Anglican Church at the top of the hill, without actually going inside.
After the walk it was almost lunch time, so we stopped in for fish and chips on the harbourfront ...
... after the obligatory joke photo!
From there we carried on eastwards, stopping wherever it looked interesting, such as this quiet backwater near Totara North (have no idea whether a Totara South even exists) ...
... the huge cabbage trees (ti kouka) at Tauranga Bay (yes, another Tauranga - not nearly as nice as ours, though) ...
... another sheltered cove at Matauri Bay, where we stopped for a second picnic lunch - camembert & crackers ...
... with very coarse, dark sand, almost like shingle, but much prettier and easier to walk on.
We then pressed on to Taupo Bay, where we found a pleasant, completely deserted holiday park which suited us for the night. We had our pick of the cabins, unpacked our suitcases and sleeping bags, and went for a walk on the beach, and investigated the rock pools ...
... before a light rain shower drove us back to our cabin for the evening.
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