Baylys Beach and West Coast of Northland

The surf forecast has not been looking good for our beach. I don't really mind the small waves because I'm a wuss, but Scott was craving bigger surf :) Also there's a point when it's really not worth going out, which is how it's been for the past few days. 0.1m = not worth putting on a wetsuit for

So last friday we went on an adventure to Baylys Beach on the west coast of northland, near Dargaville. The surf forcast was predicting some 3 star waves and Scott was eager to give them a try. We hadn't been over to that side of the island yet, so it seemed like a good excuse to go and check it out.

Google maps sent us on a route across the island that included a non-state highway, but we didn't realize how non-main the road actually was until we got stuck behind a herd of cattle. "Just drive slowly and they'll move" said the farmer...so we did, and they did. If only they had been sheep, then this would have been a classic NZ moment :)

There's cows on the road!

Moooooooove

We stopped for a bite to eat in Dargaville before going to Baylys Beach. I got kumara wedges with bacon, cheese and sour cream. Delicious AND healthy!!! Uh....

By the way, kumara is sweet potato but here they call it kumara. Don't know why! Also Dargaville is apparently the Kumara Capital of NZ, so appropriate that I had this here :)

NZ's answer to The Big Cheese Poutinerie

 Finally we got to the beach! Baylys Beach is the gateway to Ripiro Beach, New Zealand's longest driveable beach. We were surprised to find this out, since we thought the longest drivable beach was 90 Mile Beach (since it is much more famous), but I guess this is not the case.

On the topic of "drivable beach", you are allowed to drive on many of the beaches here in NZ. It's a bit weird to be walking alone the shore and have a Jeep cruise by, but it happens (not really that often though). However we found out that just because a beach is drivable doesn't mean you should assume your vehicle
can manage...we foolishly parked on a softer area and got ourselves a bit stuck =\ Rather embarrassing, though we were able to get free with a small push. Even more embarrassing, a friendly couple saw that we were having problems and came over to help (though that was very nice of them).

Anyways, the surfing. Upon arrival I immediately decided that I would not be surfing, since the waves were big and scary! Scott suited up and braved the surf though. Unfortunately the current was so strong that he couldn't really get out past the break (the surf report had the 3 star waves in the morning, and we were there in the afternoon when the ranking was suddenly 0 stars...I suspect this was the reason why). So not much surfing happened, but at least we tried!

Baylys Beach! I am not surfing...

Brave Scott is ready to go! Also, Binney is stuck but we don't know it yet... 

Big waves! Eep!

Paddle paddle paddle paddle paddle

Dexter is very concerned

A valiant effort, but today is not for us

 Since we had come all the way over to the west coast we thought we should check out the area a bit more before heading home. So we drove north along the coast and saw some sites along the way, including the largest kuari tree in New Zealand. The Tane Mahuta is something like 2000 years old and it is huge!!

Tane Mahuta - largest kuari tree in NZ

Kai Iwi Lakes

Basically what I used to think of when I pictured NZ :) There aren't as many of these as you would expect!

At Hokianga Harbour we turned east and drove back across to the east coast and down to Ruakaka. It was  a lot of driving (we definitely did not take the direct route home), but we saw lots so it was fun! 

Panoramic shot of the entrance to Hokianga Harbour

Looking over at the sand dunes of Hokianga Harbour's north shore by Opononi

There's a trailer full of sheep ahead of us! Haha