Matai Bay

Here’s the update!

On Friday 2nd January Jason, Katja and I headed up to Matai Bay, Karikari Peninsula. We headed first to Matai Bay Camping Ground, but they were full up. So we went and found another one the next bay over, which was bloody expensive and, really, not that nice. Oh, they had hot showers and fancy facilities, but it was like sardines in a can.

We went back to Matai Bay first thing the next morning to see if we could secure ourselves a site. We were a bit dubious at first, as it seemed as if we were being sent up into the hills away from the beach, but when we got to the ‘upper’ campsite, we found it was right on the beach after all. Got a nice site and set up camp.

The beach there was lovely and we had a great time playing around.

    

We went kayaking one day. We started off enthusiastic and optimistic. Just a short kayak around to the other side, where we’d left the other car. Katja and I in the double, Jason and Jane in their singles.

After a few hours, we stopped at a beach, exhausted. We weren’t entirely sure where the end was, but we were happy to be on solid land. We got out our snacks, shared them around and had a relaxing lunch.

We then soldiered on and found the end only about another hour away. When we looked up on a map later what we’d done, we were stunned. And impressed. We’d kayaked around the WHOLE of Karikari Peninsula. Yeah, baby.

On another day we did a day trip up to Cape Reinga. We stopped off at 90 Mile Beach on the way, which was beautiful. Hung around at Cape Reinga a while before heading back. Somewhere near Waitiki Landing our two car groups separated. Jason and I went to Te Hapua to do some kayaking, while Jane and Katja headed back to Matai Bay and camp. We did our kayaking and made it back through the gates at spot on 10pm, when they supposedly lock them. Found out after we got back that they weren’t locking them that night. Oh well, we had an exhilarating and very fast ride back!

  Team Karikari at 90 Mile Beach

  Mega huge ice cream at Karatia (I think)

Team Karikari at Cape Reinga

On the way home again on the 9th we stopped by my mum and dad’s place and had some lunch. Then we went to Goat Island and did some snorkelling. All in all it was a great trip. I have so much more I could have said about it, but really, I won’t bore you with all the little details.

Thanks team! We need to do it again sometime.