To Russell along the old coast road

Mimiwhangata
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Here is the first NZ entry - a brief description of our trip the other weekend up to Russell.

We decided to spend the last Sunday before the football (soccer) season on a day out.  You know, go for a bit of a tiki tour, have lunch somewhere...314km later!

We decided to spend the last Sunday before the football (soccer) season on a day out.

We started off quite early (luckily!) and took off up State Highway One.  The plan was to go up the old coast road to Russell.  This we did do, but our couple of stops along the way took a lot longer than we'd planned.  First stop was at Mimiwhangata.  What a stunning place.  The road in was narrow (very much one lane) and windy, and gravel.

Terns
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We met a couple of people at the end of the road, parked up by the beach, who claimed they were local and had only just got there.  They had a very flat tyre, the spare ( a space saver - what rubbish!) didnt fit, and they had brought their dog into the park (a big no-no, kiwi territory etc).  The DOC ranger eventually came down and loaned them a spare.

The beach was great, stony, windswept, deserted apart from the birds, the air was damp and salty.  Doesnt all that sound wonderfully romantic!  The views were limited by the cloud (it wasnt the best of weather that day) and the headlands.

Pompallier Mission House, Russell.
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From Mimiwhangata, we drove back along that narrow, windy track to the main road.  Even that road was windy, the views amazing out to the coast, hills and valleys, fields and the ocean stretching out before us.

Next stop was Bland Bay, and "morning tea".  Again, deserted for most of the time.  Three guys in a ute drove down on the beach, had a look out to sea, and drove off again.  Too rough for fishing?  The harbour / bay at Bland Bay is far from bland.  Even in calm weather, we can imagine it being hard work getting past the rocks.  My description sounds a bit bland though.  Sorry.

Heading back towards Russell, we took another detour, this time out to Rawhiti and the end of the road.  Neither of us had been out that way before, the road doesnt go anywhere, except Rawhiti - small village - and the start of the Cape Brett track, which we have yet to walk.  Still more stunning scenery, but no rain this time.  It seemed to rain only when we were on the main road, and never when we got out and walked.  How lucky was that!

Finally we got to Russell, a bit late for lunch, but we stopped to refuel anyway.  We looked at a couple of cafes, but they were full of real tourists (and at real tourist prices too).  Russell didnt seem to cater for slightly poorer locals who just wanted a simple lunch!  After lunch we visited Pompallier Mission House - fantastic tour.  If we hadnt have had the tour, we would have thought it was a waste of money, nothing much was labelled and the building isnt exactly huge.  But the tour (included in ticket price) was really informative, and really fun and interesting.  We found out all about the printing presses, the bookmaking and binding, the tannery, and the life of the 'brothers' living and working there.

Reluctantly, Colin let me persuade him to take the inland road back to Kawakawa rather than pay for the ferry.  But it actually took about the same amount of time, and the road was really good.  For a metal back road.

Finally we got home, much later than planned, having missed a couple  of other things we wanted to do that afternoon.  But it was a great day out, somewhere different for us.  We have no need to take the slower road to Russell, we have little reason to go to Russell either really, but a really pleasant day out.  At least we can tell these couch surfers etc who stay with us that the coast road to Russell is worth the drive.