December 14, 2013
Disneyland claims to be the happiest place on earth, but we’ve been to the real happiest place, and it’s Tutukaka, New Zealand.
Tutukaka is smallish harbor with a marina on the north New Zealand coastline, and there were lots of reasons to pass it by. First, it’s not the easiest place for us to go as the entrance and mile-long pass to the marina are too shallow for us in all but high tide. Second, it’s not a place you’d want to exit in bad weather (not that we like exiting any place in bad weather, but it’s good to have the option). And third, it’s easy to visit by car and we had, in fact, already visited it by car. (Our previous post.)
So why bother? Lots of people don’t, but I had fallen in love with the place when we drove here last season, and I really, really wanted to bring our boat there. Tutukaka sits nestled in a harbor surrounded by lush green hills, while pohutukawa and palm trees surround the marina and local businesses. I think it’s one of the most beautiful marina areas I’ve seen.
Apparently I’m not the only person charmed by this place because the people here are the happiest people we’ve ever run across (we know this because of the big smiles on all the faces we saw). I don’t know if there’s something in the air or the water or what, but everyone here, whether working in the restaurant, running the marina, or just visiting their boats, seems to love where they are and what they’re doing. And their happiness is contagious.
We’d been here one night and had planned to spend a few days, but once again the weather changed our plans. Strong winds were predicted, and if we didn’t leave the next morning we’d be pinned here at least a week. Not that we would have minded that, but it was mid-December, we wanted to be in Auckland by Christmas, and we had more places to visit between here and there.
In the end we only spent two days here, but we made the most of them. We ran into old friends we’d met in Fiji and joined a gathering on their boat. We made new friends including Marc and Agnes on Ieta and a local artist, Steve Moase, who does incredible drawings and owns a gallery here (www.moaseart.com). We very much enjoyed dinners at the marina’s pizza place, especially the Czech lager they have on tap: Budvar. We also visited the nearby hotel’s Oceans Cafe and discovered they make incredible breakfasts and coffee drinks, and we had a nice lunch at Schnappa Rock, the pretty local restaurant. Between all this activity we managed to take a popular local hike (the subject of the next post).
Above is a gallery of photos that sums up our time at the Tutukaka marina. It was two wonderful days in a wonderful place. Click any pic to enlarge. –Cyndi
