Monday 11 March

Whangarei
It was a peaceful night, nothing happened, the marquee was still there this morning, nobody returned to it. What a mystery, the DoC warden knew nothing about it because he left a note asking them to lay their campsite fee, when no-one slept in it so I don't know what happens there.
It felt a bit eerie last night, we were the only people at the campsite, it has 45 pitches. We had our meal, tomato salad, potato salad, hard boiled eggs and a tin of chicken pieces in mustard mayonnaise, with the remains of a nice Bacon and cheese loaf we had bought in Thames. We played Bananagram and then Crib with a bottle of passable, but not great Pinot Noir. We have not bought expensive NZ wines, but we are still probably paying more per bottle than we would usually pay in the U.K. for Chilean, South African, Australian or Spanish red wines, and they have been OK but generally not amazing.
There is no moon at the moment so it was dark in the forest last night. The advantage was that we had no light pollution at all, on our own, halfway up the Kauaeranga Valley. The stars were amazing.
We were away early this morning and made such amazingly good time, despite stopping to shop in Thames that we were through Auckland earlier than we had expected. We had expected to stay at a campsite just beyond Auckland, in fact the same one which we will probably target for our last night here next Monday. Instead we pushed further on. We took a look at a DoC site next to a lovely stretch of beach close to Waipu. We walked through the site to the beach, the bay was amazing, wonderful white sand, backed by dunes. However it was hot and there would be no shade, and of course as usual on the DoC sites no hot showers and limited toilet facilities. We decided to continue into Whangarei and a commercial campsite. We are so pleased we did, it is beautiful here, the campsite is outside the town, bordering onto a lovely forest with lots of walking trails. We have pitched in a very nice spot, looking out across the trees. The toilets flush and I am now going to have a hot shower, maybe I am getting soft now that I am 70!