15-16 March 2017: Bland Bay, Northland

Wow! What a find. beautiful area after a long drive here around the peninsular - the other side of the harbour area to where we stayed last year - at Whangaruru. Lots of cattle and some Pukekos living side-by-side with pheasants, rabbits and hares and goats. Absolutely NO poison signs in sight. What a relief.

Wandering Cattle - a common issue in Northland. This cow greeted us at Whangarei Road North...



This area is even less developed and alongside the beach are endless empty sections...with some temptingly for sale...

View from our caravan window

A walk along the beach - dog friendly!

A long walk on a hot day - Lucky we brought our water, Dizzy! :)

Enough from the photos really - no words needed. 

a sailing boat arrived the last evening we were there...

Apart from this is the most expensive campsite we've stayed at so far - at $88 for 2 nights, and NO facilities of any value. Kitchen is only hot plates (no basic equipment, let alone a microwave), showers are an extra $1 for 3 minutes (no warning signal when you run out either!). Not even paper towels in the loos and worst of all - NO rubbish bins and NO recycle bins either (although to be fair there is a food scraps buckets for the local pigs). I always bring a shovel for places like this - for those smelly nasties that need burying in the sand! LOL!  


We certainly need some freedom camping nights after all this expense! Our previous $12 p/n has been obliterated. But fortunately, plenty of opportunity for that in Northland.

I realised - after we left Bland Bay - how complacent I'd become about checking on DoC poisoned areas since being in Northland. You see, compared to South Island, Northland of North Island is relatively untouched, a quick look at the DoC 'Pesticide Summaries' confirms this. (along with the prolific insect and bird life that surrounds us). However, upon checking the next destination (a new area for us), I realised how close we had been to danger when running with Dizzy along the seemingly unspoilt Bland Bay beach. Have a look at these two maps to see what I mean:

The Bland Bay Campsite is situated at 'seven o'clock' within the bay - a few yards away from the poisoned area..

You can more clearly see the 'Camp' site location which is extremely close to the poisoned areas and beaches.

The main poison used in this operation is Diphacinone - an anticoagulant designed to kill rats and rabbits  - but which by definition is highly toxic to all mammals through primary and secondary ingestion.  Further along the bay is Cyanide. Many of these types of poisoned areas are not signposted appropriately (risks to children for example) and the Kiwi approach to the dangers are 'she'll be alright'. Terrifying really when there are so many international tourists here.

Thank GOD Dizzy and I went for our walk WESTWARDS along the shoreline and not East. Mental note: lets not be complacent anymore, check the poisoned areas before each campsite. Its just too risky not to, even if knowledge of it ruins what would otherwise be paradise....