At about 425 km (265 miles) long, the Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand. Driving along its banks to the Tasman Sea, the land switches from rich, reddish volcanic soil to black sand. At the mouth of the river, Port Waikato is a tiny village with no more than 200 inhabitants during peak surfing season. It is a good place to recover from jet lag and get accustomed to the Kiwi pace of life, but there is not much else to do. Juliette and I went on many beach walks while we stayed here.
We aren’t sure why this whale was stranded: we think it was injured and/or lost. Couldn’t be saved. According to Dean, there were five stranded whales on the same beach a week previously and they had only managed to save one.
We learned quickly to wear sunscreen every time we go outside – burn time here can be as little as ten minutes without it, especially for a paleface like me! We still managed to get somewhat pink despite the hiding of the sun by the tropical storms that were sweeping past New Zealand for several days.
Dean lives almost right on the beach. Because there is no soil at all, his entire garden has been planted in pots and bathtubs – a perfect solution! During our stay here, we helped Dean in his attempts to solve the problem of water loss in the garden pots, adding nutrients, water catchers and straw insulation to potentially help with moisture retention. We also helped him move and sort the accumulated junk of many years’ worth of automotive racing, building and surfing: the hobbies of a typical Kiwi bloke. If you ever need a rusty weight machine dismantled, moved through a small doorway and [mostly] reassembled, do not ask me – once was enough!
Other highlights of this stay:
-Wild cats: three kittens and their mom like to live under the parked car and try to sneak into the house for food.
-We also learned not to argue with the Spanish. The other WWOOFer here, a fellow from Spain called Alex insisted on making paella for us, despite the fact that we had just made and eaten our own dinner and despite the fact that he was not actually going to eat any of it himself. We decided it was easier to just smile and nod and have two dinners in one night.
Alex also insisted one afternoon that we borrow his camper van and go for a drive, simply because he thought we looked bored. We learned to drive on the wrong side of the road, found the single convenience store in town to get ice cream and headed off into the wild farmland.
...we went in search of Nikau cave, not realizing that it would have been a 90-minute drive.
Our last night there, the cyclones stepped aside to allow us a beautiful sunset on Sunset Beach.
Once our three days in Port Waikato were up, we boarded a bus and set out on the road to Swanson.
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