Delicious sourdough bread seems to be the defaul in both Canada and NZ accompanied by homemade preserves.
The road took us along the Tutukaka coast - beaches, beaches, beaches.
The visitor information says that this is one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. We are not going to argue with this.
It starts with the Ngunguru estuary and river reserve before arriving at the coast.
Around the Te Maika headland visiting Church Bay, Kowharewa Bay, Pacific Bay and Whangaumu Bay, ending up overlooking Tutukaka marina.
Very bendy and narrow road through steep sided valleys of volcanic origin. In places the road had actually fallen away and was coned off (the authorities on Vancouver Island should visit here before professing their roads to be narrow and twisting).
Then, guess what ...
Beaches with surfers. Look away now if your bored with beaches.
A huge swell running and lots of sets of waves coming in.
Woolleys Bay, Sandy Bay, Matapouri Bay, Whale Bay, Surf Bay.
Turning inland for a section of the route we thought it may be a bit boring, but the farmland proved to be very interesting, with what seemed to be raptors arguing over their quarry it turned out to be Spur Winged Plover displaying, before landing and giving us this view. They were making one hell of a noise - like a high pitched machine gun stutter. The air was also filled with the sound of Skylarks.
Kingfishers abounded on the wires.
Nearly reached the main highway again, but stopped at Waro Reserve for a look at the 40 million year old limestone formations.
Some interesting farmland features!
and an incredible cacophony from a horde (?) of sparrows - or at least they sounded like sparrows. Must have been multiple hundreds of them anyway. A small slice of some in motion, if you can spot them in the field of some sort of vegetables!
Also spotted this Pied Stilt...
Not back on the highway for long before we turn off along the old Russell Road, or at least once we had retraced our steps following us missing the 'easy to miss' turn off it mentions in the guidebooks.
Another beautiful drive along bendy roads brought us to Helena Bay Area and lunch at Art Gallery and Cafe - stunning location and scrumptious food - even had a coffee.
Lunchtime location.
A steak sandwich.
And Spinach Brattling.
Arriving at the next B&B down a very steep hill (hope we don't have to walk back up this to get to the village). As we are their first guests of the season and the only ones staying here, we were offered a choice of rooms. We opted for the rather spacious bedroom, lounge type area, separate bathroom and hallway as well as private verandah! Not only that but the views were terrific.
Found out there was a "walking week" and tonight's option was an evening Kiwi walk. Only six of us on the walk and we started off at the site of the famous flagstaff on top of the hill. Good sunset and nearly 360 degree panoramic views.
Set off on our walk through the forest with our red flashlights pointing at our feet. It was an incredibly quiet night. We heard Weko and Ru Ru or Morepork (owls) but unfortunately no Kiwi seen or heard. We did however see some glow worm. On the way back to the village we scrumped some grapefruit from somebody's garden - to be fair it was someone who was on the walk with us! Had them later that same night, deliciously sweet.