Doubtless Bay & Dinner at the Pagoda

January 11^th-12^th, 2020

After a morning walk on the beach, I bid Spirit’s Bay farewell and began my journey back south.  I still had a week until the first weekend car fair in Auckland, but I did want to get to the big city at least a few days before to get a tune up, oil change etc.  So I wasn’t in a huge rush and I decided to have a fairly light day of driving so I set my sights on Doubtless Bay.  The bay was named by Captain Cook who passed by the area in 1769 in bad weather and he remarked in his journal “doubtless a bay”.  Too bad he missed it as it features a lovely slightly curved sandy beach that extends for miles and miles.  On the afternoon I spent there, it was fairly windy but I think that kept the sand flies to a minimum.

Some riders near the sky.

I woke up early the next morning to watch sunrise and it was gorgeous.  Close to 10 am, I started south towards the Bay of Islands.  I had booked a day trip on a sailing ship called the R Tucker Thompson for the following day so I wanted to camp close to the wharf.  There was an American football playoff game that afternoon too with my sister’s Baltimore Ravens team playing in it (so she and her family would be watching for sure).  Using CamperMate I found a camping spot called “The Pagoda” that looked a bit pricey ($25 for one night, my most expensive spot on this trip), but looked like a good place to watch the game as they advertised free Wi-Fi.

Good morning from New Zealand!

Hello Betty 2.0!

The Pagoda was a lovely place.  You could tell that a lot of love, time and effort had been put into the place.  The owner was a lovely man in his late 50s or early 60s and he did tell me that the Wi-Fi could be a bit dodgy but the place looked too beautiful to pass up, even though I’d hardly seen any of it.  He gave me a quick tour and around every bend I was more and more happy to be staying there.

My spot was under some nice tall shady trees which was a bonus as summertime had kicked in, so it was getting toasty under the sun.  Turns out that I couldn’t connect to the Wi-Fi but I didn’t care, I was nearing the end of my trip and I had data to burn!  I was able to watch most of the football game, with the odd intermittent kick out (no pun intended) which was more likely due to the free sports site that I was using versus my local connectivity.

My van is in her space...connecting with her car-itage. (if you don't get it, hint: it's a Toyota and that's a pagoda)

While watching the game beside Betty 2.0, a man about my age walked by and invited me to their family dinner that night.   It was an extended family and one young woman was turning 21.  A few of the men had caught some fish while out on the boat so it sounded hard to resist.

Dinner was under that white roof on the right.

Pretty much the whole family had gone to the beach for the afternoon but soon they trickled back.  I joined them at the covered dining area, situated about 100’ up from a river.  It was a lovely time.   They were quite interested to hear about my trip around their homeland with a foreign perspective.  It was a super tasty meal and I really enjoyed my evening with them.  Even though I wouldn’t be leaving for another 2½ weeks, I felt like this was an awesome send off from this amazing country!