Opononi, Hokianga Harbour and Waiopa Forest

Hello there. This entry may be a bit pants as me and em havent had time to update the site so im doing it all from a memory far ago.  

Caught the Magic Bus from Dagaville with our old friend Colin (the bus driver), and stopped on route at the Waiopa Forest. This is a sub-tropical forest full of ferns, palms and most importantly Kauri Trees. Unfortunaly there is a lack of Kiwi wildlife in the forests due to the introduction of  foreign animals such as weasels, stoats, etc which have killed off many of the kiwi and other native birds, which are ground dwelling animals. The important part of the forests, the Kauri Trees - not only absolutley huge with long, straight trunks, but also protected and very valuable - are amazing here. We saw what they call the god of the forest 'Tane Mahuta', which is the largest know living Kauri. You cant really see how big it is from the photos but its trunk girth is 13.77m, a height of 51.51m, and an estimated age of over 1200 years old. I hope you are all enjoying the geography lesson kids. 

Anyway so we saw this great tree and we had an even greater icecream. Hokey Pokey is their flavour over here, like a vanilla ice cream with crunchie bits and caramely butterscotch. lovely! Back on to the hot bus to Opononi.

Arriving at Opononi

As we came over the top of the hills looking down onto the Hokianga Harbour (towns of Opononi, Omapere included) the view was breathtaking. The sea was so blue and it was a bloody scortching hot day anyway so you can imagine... So we were glad we were staying there. We ended up at a small hostel called House of Harmony, with a fantastic view over the beach to the massive sand dunes over the harbour. We went straight down to the beach and found some mussels of the green lipped type which we planned to have as dinner one eve.That evening we took it easy and opened a bottle, and ended up chatting to a lovely dutch girl.  

That eveing turned really stormy and we woke to find the sky grey and it so cold. The weather over here is so extreme. Its dead hot as soon as the sun is out, if its not its cold and the wind is like ice. Unfortunately the weather was a complete contrast to the day before. Never the less we decided to take a walk all around the edge of the harbour to the mouth, from where we could see the whole of the harbour, the dunes and right out to sea. The water at the harbour entrance was so rough it looked trecherous. We then headed back down to the beach to collect our mussels for tea ( yes we cant belive the walk took all day either but it is quite a way).

After collecting our lovely mussels we took the little critters home to clean and cook with wine and garlic. The resulting dish was a sight to behold. Not only did we manage to cook the kitchen sink plug in the process, but we didnt realise that the mussels ate baby crabs. The result being some half digested crabs in our dinner. Nice. despite taking four hours examiming each individual mussel for crab debris, the meal was a sucess and we would try it again! Made friends with a lovely dutch couple and drank more wine.

The next day was horrible weather and we were quite nackered out from being unemployed so we stayed in and chilled out with our new friends, waiting for the bus to pick us up.Back on the bus with crazy Colin to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. 

Forgot to mention that Opononi is named after a dolphin called Opo who swum into the harbour one day and performed trick and played with the townspeople. She lived for a year from 1955-56 and was found washed up on the rocks. Some people think she died because she wanted to have babies and didnt, but some locals think she was killed by some one fishing with dynamite in the bay. Who knows. A sad little tale. Her grave is just outside the town hall.