Perhaps not as adventurous as we thought?

25 June 2011

With a couple of nice days forecast early this week and no work on the horizon, we gave in to our itchy feet and set off on an adventure.

We've never been further north than Coromandel township, so decided to try for Port Jackson. Once you get past Colville the road is narrow and unsealed (not to mention torturous), so Craig was a bit nervous about tackling it in the bus. We weren't towing the little car for this trip, though, so that makes it easier.

The map shows our location, but not the condition of the roads. The Coromandel Peninsula is very hilly and we don't get anywhere quickly in our 8.5 tonne vehicle.

Our start was delayed by flat bus batteries - we've been sitting in one place too long. The local tow truck operator came in to give us a jump start (it's a 24v system) and Craig had a good chat with him about the roads around the top end. Unfortunately he knows the roads well because he goes up there to pick up wrecks - not great for the confidence. But he did say it would be fine so long as we took it easy. Apparently the trick is to stop when you see another vehicle coming and then 'negotiate' past each other. The big mistake most people make is to keep going and just veer off onto the verge - the edges are very soft and some of them don't make it past.

Because of our late start and the drabness of the weather, we decided to stay at the camp at Colville that night, then head further north in the morning. However, we're too heavy for their ground at this time of year - there has been an awful lot of rain. It turned out to be a lucky problem though, because the proprietor suggested we head a bit further north to Otautu Bay Farm Camp.

What an amazing spot. A couple of kilometres along the Port Jackson road is an idyllic bay, housing a farm, a few holiday houses and a lovely camping ground. We parked 5m from the beach, looking straight out into the Hauraki Gulf.



The view out the front window of the bus.

The camp is run by a lovely couple who have lots of interesting plans for its future. It's clearly very popular with fisherfolk and families and is in one of the best locations we've ever found.

A moody-looking evening.



Otautu Bay with part of the camp at the far end.



The gorgeous beach dunnies.

While there we discovered there were roadworks on the Port Jackson road, which meant there were a fair few heavy trucks around. So we decided against going any further north and had a second night at Otautu Bay. The rest of this adventure will have to wait for another time.