18-21 April 2017 Pohara Bay NZMCA Boat Club

Freedom Camping NZMCA $3pp p/n

View from our caravan across the peaceful bay...

Wow! 

This is a lovely, isolated camping spot, right by the beach. Only downside was the noise of the quarry trucks nearby (which started early!).


Justin caught me a Gurnard for supper from the boat-ramp -




... and we took time to travel up to Farewell Spit - tragically made famous because of the stranding of the whales recently in the news.

Farewell Spit - where the whales were stranded.

There was no fresh drinking water here (boil only) and I was concerned to see the number of people dismissing the notices and filling up their camper water tanks anyway. Not far away was the poisoned area:

boil water notice at campsite.

Our truck at the top of the bay  - great view! :)

It was so frustrating that no dogs were allowed anywhere around this area - and where they were allowed, I was reluctant to go with Dizzy because of the amount of poisons surrounding the beach.

And the DoC land was totally out of bounds: 

I hate seeing this kind of sign - so common in NZ

The cultural issue here in NZ is that authorities see dogs not as a natural companion to nature's walks, but as a pest - capable of killing wildlife. It's something I will struggle with for as long as I live here - and something that I find deeply upsetting because it goes alongside the Government authorities dismissing public concerns when their companion animals suffer an inhumane death as a result of secondary poisoning from Compound 1080 which has been indiscriminately aerially spread over thousands of hectares of land. This would unthinkable anywhere else in the world  - but here? Residents are make to feel shame for potentially even owning a dog.

the Habour entrance - out of bounds to us

The irony of pollution is the supposedly 'Clean Green 100% Pure New Zealand' is ever-present: no more so than in this symbolic signage on the road near the campsite - on opposite sides of the same road:

Pohara Bay signs to motorists and pedestrians - the conflict between wildlife and pollution....