king fish for supper

Tuesday

Russell Top Ten Holiday Park to Omana Regional Park

Top Ten Holiday Parks can be found all over New Zealand & just to make sure that you don't miss them, they advertise on the Holiday Radio just as you approach the locality.  Anyway, the formula is pretty much the same, motorhome service point, electrics, washing facilities, possibly a swimming pool, washrooms, outside kitchen / BBQ & here on the coast parking for your game fishing boat together with a fish preparation area so that you can gut & chop up that fresh catch of the day.

When we arrived on the Monday afternoon, the fish prep area was a hive of activity, blood, guts & scales with the aroma of so 'fresh they were almost swimming' fish!  Later that evening whilst exploring the site, which incidentally was fairly busy, Husband returned clutching a large sheet of greaseproof paper out of which was loling half a side of kingfish.   My first thoughts, were WOW-why then who followed by a eek. The fish had been presented by a holidaymaker who had been unable to light the outdoor kitchen BBQ, in order to cook his catch.  Not a bad swop infact.

Now here l had to improvise, one of the downsides of our fairly well equipped motorhome rental was a lack of outdoor cooking utensils; ok so no BBQ wasn't a problem as all the sites had on-site ones, ranging from top of the range to basic, but this early into our trip l didn't have things that you take for granted in your own Motorhome, usually found somewhere behind the silver windscreen shield & ramps.  Anyway, l did have foil so after a quick carving into slap-sized steaks then adding freshly chopped red chilli, ginger, garlic & coriander which l then wrapped loosely in the foil & allowed to steam on the BBQ.   The evening's supper was delicious, if l say so myself, we sat outside tucking into the catch of the day all washed down by a fabulously fresh NZ sauvignon blanc.

As with UK sites, you are welcome to stop until 12 noon before moving on & with the park being within walking distance of the small town of Russell we took advantage of this & made our way down to the harbour front.  Russell is a tourist honey pot, as they say up in Yorkshire, plenty of boat trips to see dolphins, plenty of boat trips to catch fish, sailing boats, sailing dinghies plus the odd cruise ship moored in the bay.  

You do need to keep an eye out for these cruise ships, especially as by mid-morning the jolly-boats are being lowered ready to bring holidaymakers ashore, these towns are not large & you really don't want to be stuck amongst hordes of photo-snapping tourists engulfing the immediate area.   We enjoyed exploring Russell, but left as the first of the boats put into the jetty.  

Our route took us back across by ferry to Route 11 then rejoining Route 1 at Kawakawa.  The visibility & weather was much clearer on our journey southwards, passing through bustling main streets & farming country.   

At around lunch time we turned off the main route south, heading for Waipu, our tourist radio had filled us in with the local history & all things Scottish, [Waipu was a Scottish settlement], again it was a fairly busy town, but we continued on through heading towards the sea & parking at the end of a track overlooking Waipu Cove.

As is the case with motorhoming, you stop for lunch, wash up then hit the road.  Wherever we travel we try to finish the day's journey around 3'ish.  This means that you can normally find a pitch easily & can chill out for the rest of the afternoon or do some exploring.

Using the very informative tourist map, we plotted the GPS location into the sat-nav, [which was situated in the rear view mirror].  The end destination was to be Omana Regional Park which had a designated area for self contained campers.  Unlike here in the UK, all campervans have to be certified that they are self-contained & carry the relevant sticker announcing the fact.  The map info also carried contact details & this one was one that you had to pre-book as a code was required to actually enter the motorhome park.  It was rather strange really, l rang the number which puts you through to Auckland Council then you call is placed with the regional park department who then take your details & card payment.  Wierd.  

We had a good view of Auckland City as we travelled to our destination, the view from the Nippon-Clipon was pretty amazing though the southside of Auckland was busy, very busy in fact.   It seemed to take for ages as we crawled across the city towards our night's stop.  Even the last few miles of bending rural roads that headed out to the coast seemed endless, but sure as eggs are eggs, the GPS duly delivered us at Omara Park though the code that Auckland council gave us did not let us open the entry gate.  Patience at this time was sorely tried.  The Telephone help number was on answerphone, no-one was about & we had paid for a night's parking.  Eventually, a car drove past us heading up to the campervan park, we sneakily tucked in behind them as he unlocked then drove through the entrance.

The track continued along through the grassy parkland to a rather hilly & slopey fenced area which was the campervan park.  No facilities here bar a long drop loo.  Wild Camping with recycling bins and we were expected.  A rather boho looking elderly Kiwi introduce himself with the words, 'aha the oppressors' to which l replied well, my ancestors were persecuted by the Romans & the Plantagenets [that's the Welsh ancestry bit] whilst the huguenot ones might have been Cathars.  He did laugh, he hadn't thought of that one. Mind you, he was joking as was l & on a serious note, he was extremely helpful on all things motorhoming New Zealand style.  'Look out for the Motorhomes with a round red badge'!

Today's mileage: = 168 miles