Whangerai

Our plans went a bit adrift today. We left Russell and headed south and stopped at Kawakawa at the suggestion of SightSinging to visit the Hundertwasser toilets (and other items of his work around the town). It's as if Gaudi and Dali had come to New Zealand on holiday and gone mad for a few days. I've uploaded a pic to Flickr to give you an idea but it's hard to represent it well.

As we passed Whangarei, I had an urge to visit the falls there and so we turned off there. It's good that it doesn't take too long to do the circuit and photograph them from above and below. It's been dry for a while so the water, which can gush out in three great spouts, was less active. I think they're pretty splendid anyway. There's another from above here.

We carried on south and looking for lunch, turned off to Waipu Cove and after a short stop carried along the scenic coast road.

Our planned destination was outside Matakana and the route, when we found it, took us down a dirt road towards the sea. We found the place and went in but found it deserted. After calling out someone arrived to attend to us. He said we'd been upgraded to a lodge and took us through the garden to a wooden building. We were surprised to find that so far out of town there was nowhere to get a meal except back along the dirt road to Matakana. We were less than impressed about the situation, right next to a pond/swamp, and the general cleanliness. It also seemed that we would be the only people there at night, no other guests and he didn't stay there at night. Bate's Motel came into mind. We decided we couldn't stay there so headed back to Matakana and have checked into a motel for the night. Tomorrow we've booked into a place in Leigh, on the coast. 

Here in Matakana there's a good restaurant in the Market Mall and we got a good meal there. I've fired off an email to our travel agent to let them know what we think and I hope that they'll refund our extra expenses. Whether they do or not, the important thing is to feel comfortable and secure. It's all part of the adventure, isn't it.

David