Houhoura- halfway up
I left Hihi Camp very early because I knew I had a long day ahead. The original plan had been to go to Awanui and then down to Kaitaia and then head up the peninsula the next day. The manager of the camp suggested this was a silly idea and I agreed. The revised plan was to head up to Pukenui from Awanui, which made it a 70km day - quite long in the context of the trip.
There were some quite steep hills between Hihi and Awanui including some roadworks. The sign before Hihi said it was the last campground for miles which is the reason I had chosen to go there. I realise now I could have gone on to Mangonui which has lots of shops and a pub with accomadation so I would have been Ok if I had gone on.
Got to Awanui about 1 and had a coffee and 2 sandwiches at the cafe on the corner. Then headed up the road north. Lots of logging trucks use the road as well as other normal traffic. And the road is quite narrow in places so I was a bit concerned, especially around blind corners.
Just south of Pukenui is the turn-off to the Houhoura Holiday Park which looked really nice from the advertising. I dithered about whether to carry on to Pukenui or detour to Houhoura. Lethagy and pretty pictures won the day and I rode down 2 kms into Houhora to the backpackers.
I would love to go back and stay there for 3 or 4 days to explore with a boat, because it was lovely .Unfortunately there is no shop and so I had to ration my my depleted food stocks. To the rescue came a couple from Wellington. They are retired and twice a year tow their runabout up to Northland to go fishing for 3 or 4 weeks. They bring their small chest freezer and fill it full of fish before heading back south to Wellington. They generously offered me a fillet of snapper to supplement my small rations, without even knowing how low I was getting in food.
It was enjoyable meeting up with them as they live in Kingston in Wellington where I used to teach.
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