January 22, 2014
Today as we headed from Whangarei back to Auckland, we decided to detour to an area we hadn’t yet seen: Bream Bay, which included the village of Waipu, Waipu Cove, Langs Beach and Mangawhai Heads.
The village of Waipu is small but famous for its Scottish heritage and hosting the yearly Caledonia Highland Games. These games, held on New Year’s Day, bring people from all over the world to compete in traditional Scottish challenges. Not surprisingly this festival is pretty popular with the cruising fleet, but we never went because we just weren’t that into it. However, I did very much want to see the town as I was starting to feel we were the only cruisers who hadn’t been there.
As it turned out, the town was even smaller than expected, and didn’t show many signs of being Scottish except for its welcome sign in the shape of a bagpipe player. But there was a cute place to pull over for coffee alongside an art gallery and shop.
We checked out The Black Shed gallery while waiting for our coffee drinks, and not only was it a beautiful building, but the gallery had some really nice items. I hadn’t intended to buy anything but couldn’t resist a small silk painting that I still treasure.
After coffee, we continued down the coast. Our first stop was pretty Waipu Cove with its small park and beach. Below, photos of the coffee place, the Black Shed gallery, and Waipu Cove (click to enlarge and scroll).
We then continued to Lang’s Beach, an attractive beach that stretched far down the coast. The nicest spot, though, was its small riverbed lined with hydrangeas, so pretty!
Our final stop was Mangawhai Heads, which turned out to be the best stop of the day! It had beautiful grassy sand dunes and a dramatic wide sandspit enclosing a long inner channel and harbor. The contrast between the wild water outside the spit and the peaceful and very attractive inner waterway was striking.
After Mangawhai Heads we rejoined the main highway and headed back to Auckland. All the stops today had been nice, but Mangawhai Heads was the surprise standout, well worth the detour.
En route to Auckland, we enjoyed some nice countryside scenery.
–Cyndi
