Sheila had been to Omaha but had not been any further north so we decided to go for a drive. We didn’t really have any plans and just sort of stop at a few places along the way that looked cool. Sounds like a pretty bad strategy but it was a really nice day and anywhere on the coast is going to be pretty.
Our first stop was Goat Island. It is supposed to be some of the better snorkling in New Zealand I think and there was a lot of people there snorkling and kayaking. Just from the rocks I saw a few pretty big fish cruising around. We decided it wasn’t warm enough to snorkel yet and that we would wait a few weeks and come back. We are going to Fiji next weekend and I am sure the snorkeling will be a lot better there anyway. Instead of snorkling we walked around a bit on the rocks and took a few pictures.
Our second stop was a warf a little bit further south from Goat Island. It wasn’t really a “tourist stop”…we just kind of drove around and ended up there. Was pretty cool…I imagine there are thousands of little coves like that all over the country. Highlight of the stop was a dead fish in a tide pool. Which one of us picked up…not going to say who. Seemed a little bit like Nova Scotia because there were a bunch of small fishing boats.
Next we stopped at a protected wildlife area called Tawharanua. It had a bunch of pastures with sheep, a bird sanctuary and really cool beach. The road to it was crazy…so narrow and windy and the locals were driving like retards. It was supposed to be 30km/h but most were driving like 50ish. At times it was down to one lane for both directions even around crazy corners. The beach was really nice and had a few different parts…there was like one section that had a lot of people on it then there was like a small cave that you could walk through and there was a whole different beach that I thought was nicer and had a lot less people. The water was really turquoise at Tawharanua.
Pictures from Goat Island, Tawharanua and the warf:
The second beach in Tawharanua