March 12, 2103
We picked up our anchor and headed further inland to Whangaroa Village. We’d visited the town by car, but I was curious now to experience it by boat. Part of the boater’s experience is going ashore to see if there’s a reasonably-stocked market for replenishing diminishing food supplies, a restaurant or cafe to replenish the tired cook, and a place where you can toss your accumulated trash.
We headed to town and located a trash bin but needed to buy a special bag to use it, a common way of paying for trash service in remote areas like this. We headed to the market to buy a bag, checking out the town as we went. It’s very small, and being an old fishing village, some of the residents are a little crusty around the edges. The market was tiny and we didn’t find much, but I was thrilled to find a Fishing Club in town. This was one of those fishing club restaurants scattered around New Zealand, private but they usually allow guests to visit.
We went back that evening for dinner at the Fishing Club, only to find that while we could eat there, only members can buy alcoholic beverages. We could ask a member to buy a drink for us, but walking up to a table of strangers and asking if they could buy us beer was not appealing. On top of that, the food took a long a long time to arrive. I was not a fan of the place at this point, but the food turned out to be quite good, especially the popcorn shrimp and Rich’s burger. I have to say I’d go back for the food.
In all, this bay is kind of a cool place and worth a night if you have time, but it’s not as amazing as the bays further out in the fjord-like area of the harbor. –Cyndi
