CLICK HERE to read and/or watch Part 1 of the Far North, including the stunning Cape Reinga!
Be sure to check out our Part 2 vlog below too!
Tapotupotu Bay
After lapping up all the beauty of Cape Rēinga/Te Rerenga Wairua, Te Werahi and glorious ocean views we headed straight to Tapotupotu Bay and the DOC Campsite located here.
Tapotupotu DOC Campsite is one of the DOC campsites where the DOC Campsite Pass isn’t valid. It is therefore $16.00 per adult, per night and DOC like you to book ahead. We thought this quite bizarre as there are no marked or numbered campsites. There are kind-of designated areas, but everyone just parked where they wanted really. Being 7-metres long we found it quite hard to get a level spot, but that’s ok, nothing our levellers couldn’t sort.
Tapotupotu DOC Campsite is New Zealand’s Northern most campsite and situated right on the absolutely gorgeous Tapotupotu Bay. Surrounded by thick forest the bay and the Tapotupotu stream are just want you expect to see when you think of the sub-tropical Far North.
The swimming is good off the beach, and for little kiddies the stream is nice and safe. You can also walk to Cape Rēinga/Te Rerenga Wairua from here through a hiking trail, think its about 3 hours one way, part of the Te Paki Coastal Track.
This campsite was very popular and filled up quick, so get in early if you want any chance of a view and your own space. We didn’t once see any Rangers or Hosts and no envelopes were provided or registration forms for payment. So book online beforehand, this also means though that no one is checking on who has paid or not, which is a tad annoying. The campsite offers toilets and outside cold showers, both quite run down.
The Giant Sand Dunes at Te Paki
Next stop, just down the road from Tapotupotu we checked out the Giant Sand Dunes at Te Paki.
‘As if the breathtaking glory of Ninety Mile Beach wasn’t enough, right at the northern end, near the Te Paki Stream, are some seriously steep and seriously fun sand dunes.’ aa.co.nz
Taking the few km unsealed road in you come into a carpark, limited large vehicle parking, and are confronted by some massive hills of sand! The area is around 10km’s of sand dunes along the coast, the highest sand dune being 150 metres, that’s around 490 feet!! Just mad! It is part of the Te Paki Recreation Reserve managed by DOC, so again many DOC rules apply including no pets allowed.
At the carpark you will see a big static truck advertising Ahikaa Adventures, these are the people you can hire a boogie board from to use as a sand board. Its $15.00 per board and you can share, there was no time limit, and they like to take a driving licence from you or passport or something as bond, which was fine.
These guys do not own the area and aren’t in control of the sand dunes or anything like that so you can of course take your own sand board and you don’t need to check in with them or anything like that. Even if we had our own sand board, we may still hire from them though, its always good to support smaller local businesses.
You then take a walk out onto the dunes, there are no health and safety procedures or signage, so definitely use your common sense when throwing yourself down these surprisingly high dunes of sand. What a workout walking up them, you don’t realise how high they are until you’re up the top and can just see your van parked in the distance.
We had quite a windy and overcast day, if we re-visit, we’ll try to get there on a clear day. It was still stunning though.
Hot tip: If you’re taking a phone, or anything, take it in a bag because the sand gets everywhere and you don’t really need footwear. Also, plenty of sun screen, there is zero shade up there.
We definitely recommend a visit to the Sand Dunes! Fun for everyone!
Kapowairua/ Spirits Bay
Next stop, Kapowairua/Spirits Bay DOC Campsite! And what a difference a day makes!!
The weather turned!!
It took us around 25 minutes from the main sealed road to get to this campsite, a long windy unsealed track takes you up and down until you reach the camp, take it slow.
We stayed here for two nights and the whole time it rained, that annoying sideways, light but constant rain but that’s ok. The area is really pretty and surrounded by the hills of the Aupōuri Peninsula. The beach is just a 5 minute walk from the campsite, due to the weather and the rough as ocean we definitely didn’t do any swimming.
We saw a huge herd of horses, and after some research we believe them to be wild, which was pretty awesome. Apparently the wild horses tut North still cause tension though. We also saw a few wild dogs, keep away from the wild dogs.
This campsite was a lot less busy than Tapotupotu which was great. Perhaps just because of the weather or perhaps because its harder to get to, but here the facilities were better and we would recommend coming. Again, this campsite is not valid under the DOC Pass, but again we didn’t see any Hosts nor Rangers. It was all lovely, until….
We left the campsite early, it was still raining and 2 km’s up the road, we started to slide until we could slide no more and ended up in a small ditch….
Should have known better, we could see the road looked a bit ‘out of shape’, bumpy, wet, but it was too late. After a little bit of pushing and revving we realised we couldn’t physically move a 3.5 tonne rig out of mud! Luckily we had somewhat of a signal, so called the AA.
The AA weren’t that great to deal with to be honest, firstly the member of staff we spoke to was quite abrupt and not at all sympathetic to our situation. Secondly we found out that even though we have the top cover with the AA to cover the motorhome, the AA will not send a tow truck out to us, just a tow vehicle, being a ute or SUV. If we require a truck we have to arrange and pay for that ourselves? We thought this quite odd, good time to check your policy perhaps.
Anyway, the AA did send out a chap called Robert from Bradley’s T&T Towing. He came down in his Nissan Patrol hooked us up and pulled us out no worries, so all good in the end and he was a really friendly guy!
That was enough backroads and bush for one day…
It continued to rain so thought we’d head to a NZMCA Park or POP (Park Over Property) instead of hitting Te Put Reserve like originally planned, we can always go back.
En-route we stopped off at Te Kao Local Store to sample one of their ‘world famous’ ice creams!!!! And for $11.50 we got a “whoppa stoppa”. Ye so this shop has been on the news, check it out. The lady who served us didn’t seem to like the fame of the shop though… Behind this shop is also a POP! Check it out on the NZMCA App.
The POP was a bit close to the road for us, so we carried on to a small town called Pukenui and stayed at another POP named ‘Bill and Yvonne Knight’ on the NZMCA App. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in their garden, with the bamboo as shelter from the elements. This one is free too!
Ninety Mile Beach/Te-Oneroa-a-Tōhē!
The next morning we stopped by Ninety Mile Beach/Te-Oneroa-a-Tōhē!… The weather was still a bit rough so we didn’t stay too long. It’s a vast windswept beach with no one around when we visited.
‘Ninety-Mile Beach is the fabled strip of sand that stretches from Ahipara to Scott Point, five kilometres south of Cape Maria van Diemen. Truth be told, it is actually 88 kilometres long.
This beach is officially a highway, but is really only suitable for 4WD vehicles and is safe to drive only at specific times of the tides. Rental companies won’t allow their cars on the sand, mostly for safety reasons. The easy way to drive along the beach is to catch a coach tour from Kaitai If you are short of time in Northland and staying in the Bay of Islands, coach ours and scenic flights up to Cape Reinga depart from Paihia daily.’ newzealand.com
We did not take Matilda onto the beach, oh no, no!
Slowly heading South back toward Kaitaia we stopped off at Arethusa Reserve; a nice short 40 minute loop walk around a nature reserve. We then popped for a look at Houhora Heads, worth a look!
Ahipara
We’ve been stopping by at various vineyards on our tour through greater Northland, following the Northland Wine Trail and one we definitely recommend is Okahu Vineyard & Winery just outside Kaitaia, en-route to Ahipara.
Just a small vineyard but with a huge personality. Not just from Monty the owner, who was extremely friendly, informative and just a nice guy! We tried a few very nice wines and ended buying around four bottles. Very well priced and very good wine. Monty did really make the experience though, its always so much better at a tasting to have a host who actually cares and also doesn’t judge. Of course we can’t forget Mia the lab either!
Continuing along the Twin Coast Discovery Highway, west, we stopped off at Ahipara, having lunch just at Te Kōhanga/Shipwreck Bay which is a great little stop off. Given the name due to the amount of ships that ended up wrecked here in history, some of which you can still see the remains of today. The coastline at Ahipara is just beautiful and the surf is meant to be awesome.
We then slowly made our way inland, ending our Far North trip in a funny little town called Broadwood.
Broadwood
‘Broadwood is a town about 25 km to the north of the north side of the Hokianga harbour, in Northland, New Zealand. Herekino is 21 km to the west, and Mangamuka Bridge is the same distance to the east.
The Broadwood area was first settled by Pakeha in the 1880s, and an access road was constructed through the area from Takahue to Motukaraka on the Hokianga harbour. An unmetalled road through the Te Karae Valley to Kohukohu was constructed in 1908.
1,962 people lived on the north side of Hokianga Harbour at the time of the 2006 Census, a decrease of 54, but this is a much larger area than the town of Broadwood.’ hokianga.com
And we thought it was great. Nice locals, nice and quiet, nothing really going on. We stayed at the North Hokianga A&P Association Campsite, set in the Rugby Club area of the town. Stumbled across this one. It’s $10.00 per night and to access it you need to contact a lady called Helen and pay the fees/collect the keys from the GAS Store in the town.
All information can be found on the WikiCamps App or NZMCA App. There are two power hookups available if you need them and loo’s. You must be self-contained and pets aren’t allowed, but they do let the odd TA Walker in too. Great spot. Reminded us of Batlow in the Snowy Mountains, NSW.
The Far North Run-Down
And that’s it! Our far North trip done, in about two weeks. This was taking our time and staying for several nights where we wanted. We thoroughly enjoyed this trip. It would have been great if there were a few more freedom camps or DOC camps that were included with our DOC pass. There is definitely the space for it up here, so that would have been something that would keep us staying longer.
A highlight for us was definitely Cape Reinga, and all of the beautiful surrounding natural bush. It was lovely to see landscape which is not just farm land, like so much of New Zealand. The bays and beaches around the far north are just stunning and we have never seen water so clear, and so great for swimming!
Some of the towns and villages are a bit shabbier than we were used to seeing down south, but we never felt unsafe, and regardless the surrounds are idyllic, and life just seems to carry on at a slower pace.
Now it was onwards to the Hokianga and Kauri Coast region!