January 31, 2014
Mahurangi West, specifically Mahurangi Regional Park, is the on west side of Mahurangi Harbour. It’s near the Matakana region (the subject of my previous posts), but accessing it requires taking an earlier exit from the highway. Below, a map:
It was about a 35-minute drive from Auckland to the turnoff. Once there, our drive took us over grassy green hills with beautiful views of the peninsulas and inlets of Mahurangi Harbour. (Below, some photos—click to enlarge any photos in the galleries that follow.)
We arrived at Sullivan’s Bay in Mahurangi Regional Park and went to check out the beach and bay. It was very pleasant there with shade trees over a green-grass lawn, a long brown beach, and calm water. It looked like a place we could anchor easily enough, but we wouldn’t consider this a “destination” anchorage.
It was a rather hot and sunny day, but we decided to brave the steep walk up the Mita Bay Loop Track to the Tungutu Point lookout. It turned out to be a pleasant walk amid golden grass, lovely trees, and nice views of the islands scattered across the north Hauraki Gulf.
At the top we were treated to fantastic views of Mahurangi Harbor and the next bay over, Mita Bay (Otuawea Bay).
We lingered, admiring this lovely place and its views. Nearby was a interesting tree that’s a breeding ground for giant moths. They weren’t here at the time, but still a neat thing to learn about. Giant moths in New Zealand, who knew? (In all our seasons here, we’ve still never seen one.)
The climb back down the hill was exercise in and of itself, steep enough to take a fair effort and a relief to get to the bottom. At this point, we were hot and thirsty; so I suggested we go check out the tiny historic town of Puhoi on the way back to Auckland. We could go to its quaint general store and get something to drink.
And so a few miles down the highway, we turned off and drove into an area that had an old country farm look with tall dried grass, trees and a quaint village, its wood buildings all painted white. We found the general store and bought some water, coffee drinks, and a bottle of the store’s specialty: fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. It was a nice little shop, and the juice was really good.
My apologies for the subpar Puhoi photos. The more hot and tired my husband is, the less patience he has for photo stops; so my shots tend to be rushed and maybe a bit blurry. As you can see, he was feeling done for the day and wasn’t keen on the idea of wandering around Puhoi looking for photo ops.
In spite of wearing ourselves out, this made for a pleasant day excursion from Auckland. –Cyndi
