Whangarei is a pretty harbour-side town, surrounded by rolling hills and is regarded as an important gateway to Northland and a centre of employment - especially for the local hospital.
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| The 'Basin' area - central quayside in Whangarei |
I was meeting a Twitter friend in the town this week, so we camped overnight at a POP in nearby Ngunguru. Along the roadside out of town, interestingly there was lots of stone-walls around the fields and paddocks on the road to the estuary - something I don't think I've seen before in New Zealand - sort of reminiscent of our old Lake District...
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| Historic stone walls built by early settlers when Kauri Gum jobs were in decline. |
It turns out it was volcanic rock from the Dalmation gum tree workers - now preserved as valuable. Some were even being re-built.
Dizzy loved running along the estuary beaches and the little town of Ngunguru was very friendly and full of interesting diverse migrants that has probably escapes the Auckland rat-race.
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| Ngunguru - tree swing which at low tide is exposed in the sand and shells |
Sadly the shell-fishing opportunities here are finished - for the time being at least. We learned from the guy who owned the POP we were staying, that a year or so ago, the local timber industry let some toxic waste get washed into the estuary and it killed all the shellfish with a layer of brown muck. So the locals petitioned for some accountability (surprise surprise, no luck so far) and that to let the shell-fish population recover fully, so kai collection is allowed in the area for a while.
The good news is though, that sea-fish don't seem to have been affected - our host went out in his boat and collected all his quota allowance in only 2 hours! Not bad for a mornings' work that He'd anticipated would keep him out (and away from his wife) all day. :)
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