28 January 2006 - Tapapakanga

End Mileage: 175760

Start Mileage: 175557

Distance Travelled: 203

We decided to have a one night trip to Tapapakanga Regional Park since we’d enjoyed the small time we’d spent their with the Lendrums a few trips back. Unfortunately the Lendrums couldn’t make it this time as they were busy packing for their big 3 month trip in Cracker-Jack to the South Island – poor excuse but it’s all they could come up with at such short notice.

So I’d booked Tapapakanga during the week for Rex and I so we were all set.

Left from Rex’s on Saturday morning at 10:45 am, we’d figured no need to hurry as we weren’t actually going far and would be missing any Anniversary Weekend traffic. So did a quick stop at the supermarket in Papakura for supplies for lunch/dinner and then back to Haslip Manor for a couple of things that had been forgotten…

Made it to the park at 1:30 pm after going via Hunua – wow what a bumpy road, but a different one, which is what we try to do on each trip… Rather busy in the general car park so we stopped at the gate and I got out to use the combination that ARC had given me with the paper work. Well look at that, they’d written down the wrong number. Lucky for me they were open and I had a cell phone I could use to call them and get the correct number… It was 5011 and they’d put 5711 on the form! duh

Anyway, through the gate and down to the beach and WOW look at all those other people here – how rude, didn’t they know we wanted a quiet night and to park under the tree:

Well parking under the tree wasn’t going to happen as others were already there and it looked like they had been there for a while. No matter, we parked next to them, as there was space between them and the next camper. At least we were on the waters edge!

So we set up and sat in the sun and read for the afternoon. It was great – lots of people in the water and always something going on. We went for a walk along the beach to where there were a lot of people who’d just come down for the day. It was a really awesome relaxing way to spend the afternoon. Even Rex managed to happily read his book; admittedly it was too hot for him outside so he lay in BILITY and did read and snooze. Being me I sat in the sun. We are now thinking about getting an awning for BILITY so we can both sit outside for longer as it does get rather warm in BILITY itself.

We sat and had cheese, crackers and wine in the shade as the sun went down and then decided we’d get dinner going. First (and only one really) was that the can opener was last seen in Feilding when Marg needed something to use to open a can of fruit!!! So off to say hello to the couple in the camper next to us and ask if we could borrow their can opener – this worked out fine and we have since got hold of JR and the can opener is there and we’ll get it in March when we see him in Turangi.

Camp site views – can see the weather coming across from the Coromandel…



A simple meal of pasta and a tomato sauce, which was lovely.

We continued to sit outside as the sun went down and did go for another walk as well. This time we went to the “Upper Campground”. It’s basically a paddock – beach access would be a steep walk down a track and views are minimal due to trees having grown in the way. Again though quite a few people in both tents and campers in the upper camp ground.

The original kauri house where the Ashby family settled in 1899. They raised 14 children in this place from when it was built in 1900.

Views from the front of the house.

A random view from the road between the car park gate and the camping area. This place has one of those natural picture frames that were set up a while back:

The beach at Tapapakanga is quite rocky – from small pebbles to larger rocks. At one stage during high/low tide as the water goes over the pebbles and rocks they bang together – really cool.

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