Manganoui and Karikari Peninsula

February 14, 2020

Leaving Tauranga Bay, late in the afternoon we arrive at HiHI Beach, convenient to the Karikari Peninsula and the old whaling town of Manganoui. Motor camps are found throughout NZ, popular with backpackers and camper van travellers. Camps typically have tent and RV sites, a few motel units, and cabins that share a common cooking facility. Always basic, clean, and usually run by on site owners who usually are a good source of information for the area.

Today we head to Matai Bay on the Karikari Peninsula. These are actually twin bays which have long beaches but are somewhat protected and are bordered at each end by rocky headlands. There is a small DOC (dept. of conservation) campground with toilets, cold shower and camp sites. Great place for beach walks, swimming, and playing in the waves. After a fun beach day, we return back to HiHi.

One of our goals in coming here was to reconnect with the Sparksman family in Manganoui. We met Peter and his wife in 1981 at the pub which he called his “office”. We walked in to the pub in '81 with our backpacks and Peter gave us a wonderful welcome. While at the pub we were introduced to 3 Kiwi gents who invited us out to their sport fishing boat, Green Dolphin. It was quite an evening including an episode of man overboard, lost dentures, a nighttime Scuba dive that came up with a golf ball instead of dentures, but thankfully everybody came through intact minus the false teeth. You can ply me with food and drink to hear the whole story! The next day Peter's wife Nura toured us around the area including visits to the largest Kauri tree in NZ, which still lives on. Interestingly, Peter visited us in Seattle later that spring as he was on a trip to see his brother in Vancouver B.C. Both Peter and Nura have passed, but there are still some nephews and grandchildren in the area. The pub and their home, which is still in the family, remain. While we didn’t meet his nephew we connected with several locals that remembered Peter and were quite pleased we had made the effort to revisit. Our final two days in the area included visits to Taupo Bay—a surfing beach where we had a good time watching the waves and reading. The late afternoon we walked Cooper’s Beach which is now quite built up. In ’81 there was only a motor camp and no other development. The evening sun, and a 360 view finished the day from atop the Rangikapiti Pa which is the top of a hill that had been a fortified Maori village and is still a Maori reserve.

Our final day in Manganoui coincided with the tail end of cyclone Winston bringing a tropical rainstorm at the same time several motorcycle gangs arrived for a “festival”. Bad weather, bikers with no place to ride and to much beer on board….It seemed a good time to head south!