February 2013
We went on an outing to explore the coastal countryside around the town of Kerikeri.
Kerikeri itself feels very much like an inland town on a river; there’s no sense of the ocean nearby. But if you drive just beyond it to the east, you find that Kerikeri is upriver from the head of a natural harbor, the Kerikeri Inlet. If you are on the south bank and look north, you are looking at the south side of the Kerikeri Peninsula and will spot the Kerikeri Marina. We decided to go check that out, which meant driving back inland again to Kerikeri then back out the peninsula to find the marina.
The Kerikeri marina is in a very pretty location and looks like a nice place, although it’s nowhere near the size of the Opua marina and doesn’t have its marine stores, services, and facilities. It does, however, have the advantage of being a 10-minute drive from downtown Kerikeri, as opposed to the 30 minute drive from Opua. This would put a person closer to lots of eateries, two big grocery stores, and the Sunday Farmer’s market. If we ever spend a long stretch of time in the Bay of Islands again, we might try to spend a month or so here.
If you drive to the north side of the Kerikeri Peninsula, you will not see open ocean yet. You will instead see the Te Puna Inlet, and the south side of the big, curving Purerua Peninsula. There is a road that goes out on it, and we took a ride out there. It’s very remote and has the windswept feeling of a piece of land that takes the brunt of the seas and weather while keeping the waters of the inlets and part of the Bay of Islands calm. Here’s a gallery of pictures from this day’s outing. – Cyndi (Click on any picture to enlarge and scroll.)
