Rarawa

The silica white sands and green waters of Rarawa beach on the east coast of Northland.

We flew into New Zealand on March 17^th and hurriedly proceeded to the Telecom counter to pick up a mobile WiFi device.  The kids needed Internet for their school and Willie for his work.  We knew without a portable WiFi device this might get tricky.  What we didn’t know was that 80% of New Zealand doesn’t have cell phone service and the mobile WiFi would be useless.  While Willie dealt with setting up our plan, I used the courtesy phone to call the hotel for their free shuttle service.  With the exception of our issues with Air New Zealand in Tahiti, things had actually been running quite smoothly.  That was until we showed up at the hotel and were informed that they had no record of our hotel reservation.  After a ridiculous conversation with the receptionist, we concluded that Expedia had not made the necessary changes to our itinerary and although I had a confirmation number for this hotel on this day, they did not have our reservation.  I finally did get it worked out with the reservation counter the next day, but it was not a good way to end a 12 hour day of travel. 

After getting a few hours of sleep, we woke to an all you can eat breakfast buffet and endless cup of coffee that made up for the previous long day of travel.  We stuffed ourselves with waffles topped with raspberry preserves, scrambled eggs, sausage, fruit, and croissants.  The carbo-loading and caffeine helped fuel us for the long day ahead. 

We were all exhausted but excited to start our new adventures on the 6^th Island of our South Pacific tour.  We sat at the RV rental desk, filled out the necessary waivers, and rental agreements, got a 10 minute tour of the how-to’s of our camper van and we were off – driving a huge ass campervan on the left hand side of the road, with manual shift on the left side of the steering wheel that was on the right hand side of the vehicle. Already being somewhat spatially challenged in addition to the lack of sleep, I willingly handed the keys over to Willie.

We hadn’t done a whole lot of research on New Zealand.  We knew of a few key places on the North Island that were iconic surf destinations, but that was about it.  We had a few maps and a tourism radio that came with the vehicle.  It is a GPS tool that plays music through your radio but alerts you to all the tourist attractions.  I must say, it came in quite handy for ill prepared tourists like our selves. 

We first headed North to the Pak and Save for provisions and continued North of Auckland on Hwy 1to a town called Orewa, where we stopped in the local surf shop for some beta and a wet suit for Willie.  It was time to suit up for some colder water.  With that checked off our to do list, we decided to continue on to our final destination of Ahipara to a surf break called Shipwrecks. All went well until we missed the turn for HWY 1 and ended up about 1 and half hours out of our way in the native bush.  Twelve hours later, we had reached our destination, pulled over on the side of the road and called it home for the night. 

Shipwrecks surf break is off to the right.  They say when it is “going off” you can ride this left for 1 kilometer. Unfortunately we missed it by a day.

For the next 2 weeks we drove around the countryside and coastline of the North Island…….

On March 17th we said goodbye to Tsing Tsing and boarded the plane for New Zealand.  He promised us “barbeque and native dancers” the next time we came.

None of us wanted to leave.  In just 2 short weeks, we had fallen in love with the islands and the people of Tahiti.

When we reached the Airport in Papeete, Tahiti we approached the ticket counter to check in for our flight to New Zealand.  I had booked our flight TO New Zealand 2 months prior but I had not booked a flight out of the country.  We thought we would leave our plans open so that if we decided to stay longer, we could.  Well, I guessed I missed the section in the guide books about how you can’t enter the country without a ticket to leave.  Apparently,  the six other parties that were frantically buying tickets, missed that little tidbit of information also.  We frantically found a ticket that we could cancel within 24 hours and booked tickets for a flight that we would never take.

Finally leaving on Air New Zealand.

the  plants

the water

rivers and mountains

the people

the sunsets

the moonbeams

You may have guessed by now that we are not revealing the name of the island we stayed on for a reason.  Although the locals here are very welcoming if you are a single dude visiting with your family, they frown upon a group of foreigners invading their surf spots.  Videotaping or photographing at the breaks is also not allowed.  With this in mind, it was difficult to get good footage.  On a few days,  I kayaked out to the surf break with Willie and was able to sneak in a little photographing before anyone else showed up.  Hiding my camera in a shopping bag and pulling it in and out between motorboats that passed, allowed me to get a few good shots. Unfortunately, I did not get any footage of Wylie despite the fact that her rode some killer waves.  It is not easy to hide your camera, keep the kayak heading in the right direction and avoid drifting into the line up.

The world class surf break.  A ten minute paddle from our house. This photo was taken from our bedroom window.

Willie and Wylie waiting for a good one.

Watching reef surfing is spectacular.  The water can be so flat one moment and then all of a sudden a wave appears, rolls in, and grows to a height of 8 -10 feet within seconds.  I was only about 200 feet away, but completely out of the break.  The reef is like a magic wave machine.  Watching it appear literally out of the blue, never gets old.

Close up of the wave from the kayak.

The wave breaking.

Over and over again…

Willie paddling in after a great surf session.

http://youtu.be/3DlfABcrsoA

 Boarding our Air Tahiti plane for what turned out to be an amazing week on our favorite island in French Polynesia.

On March 10th we departed from Papeete Tahiti, boarded a small plane and 45 minutes later we touched down on a small Island – 10 miles by 9 miles.  The airport was the size of a small post office and in fact looked more like one than an airport. Tsing Tsing, the owner of our rental home, was there to greet us (unlike Joey).  He had a truck for all of our luggage and boards, a rental car, and a key to the gait to enter our driveway (unlike Joey).  Within minutes we were at our new house.

It was situated on a beautiful white sand beach with amazing snorkeling just a few steps from our back door.   Crystal clear water, a few large catamarans moored in front, and one of the best surf breaks in French Polynesia a paddle away awaited us.

The view from our bedroom window.

Wylie swimming with the fishies.

Hanging out on our beach.

The house was immaculate and relatively bug free with the exception of the cockroach that crawled into bed with me – for the second time!  This time I took action.  My nightly routine was to cover myself in bug spray and then “secure the perimeter”  by spraying a line of roach killer on the floor around my bed.  The exposure to toxic bug spray far outweighed having another roach to sleep with me.

“Say hello to my little friend.”

The “big” city center was a 3-minute walk along the waterfront.  There was a super market, bank, and a couple of stores that carried odds and ends and a few food trucks.  Locals  set up street side tables to sell bananas, cucumbers, root vegetables and fish.   The kids gathered at the pier to swim and wait for the occasional big ship to dock with deliveries.  After a few days on the island, we found ourselves getting excited as we spotted a big ship heading into shore.

Our days on the island consisted of snorkeling in front of our house with the colorful fish, eels, sea urchins and sea anemones, hanging out at the beach, walking into town for groceries or a fish burger at our favorite local food truck, sitting on the lanai watching the motor boats zip by and viewing outriggers being paddled by crews of locals.

The walkway to town.

The “big” city center.

Shopping day – Haricots verts long and baguettes. In the evenings we would paddle along the shore in our kayaks as the sun set over the horizon.

The sunsets provided great light for family photos.