Well, what to say about Port Waikato? It’s small, no shops at all, almost every building is a ‘Bach’ (New Zealand holiday home) it has some of the most dangerous beach front there is in NZ, BUT and it’s a BIG BUT it’s a fantastic place! The Sand is a very dark Grey, not Black but is still very hot; also it’s very soft great for those lazy days on the beach. Lifeguards are on duty everyday here, rare indeed as far as we’ve seen; but only between 1000 - 1700 hr’s when a call goes out across the beach “The lifeguards are now off duty, we recommend that you do not swim; we repeat that we recommend you do not swim here” We some how got the feeling we shouldn’t swim here after they had gone. We stayed here for 6 nights and their workload was very visible, they were called out to 5 local fishermen who had been caught out by the out going tide and were swept away; all okay. They were having constant battles with parents to keep the children between the flags; they have 2 boats and a quad on the sand at all times; plus the small tower that they wheel out every day. On our final day we had the displeasure of seeing the aftermath of a 9 year old girl coming off of a full sized quad bike, she had survived and had been taken away by Helicopter on a backboard after a long hour of being looked after on the beach by 2 lifeguards; weather she would ever walk again we did not find out. This was truly a place that needed Lifeguards.
The sad bits out the way, this is a good place to be in the Sun; we intend to return here before we leave for another 6 nights. The host is a wonderful woman, who in between running the Hostel, looking after her son, and working full time she still found time to take Andy & I out at sunset to teach us Fishing. To be honest we merely feed the Fish rather than caught them, but it was great fun watching the Sun go down whilst up to our waist in the cool Sea. With the on shore wind that appeared for a couple of days, Andy was away with the Kite buggy; drawing the usual onlookers he was racing around the beach and smiling like a child in a sweet shop (I think that’s why we are returning?) The Surf was ‘sort of’ fun, it was hard and the strangest thing happens at low tide. Whilst paddling for a wave, I was ‘wiped out’ by the back wash wave coming out from the shore; it seems to be a freak of nature thing here so we decided that maybe we should listen to the Lifeguard warning. Back to the Hostel for a glass of Wine sat on our ‘private’ decking area, discussing what DVD to borrow from the office; if you ever get a chance you MUST watch ‘Black Sheep’ It’s so bad it has to be seen to be believed, a NZ film about Genetically modified Sheep who go on a killing rampage; terrible. We only have 4 weeks left in New Zealand, so we’ve decided that we will use this time to return to the Northland area; and in turn to some of our favourite hostels. Endless Summer Lodge and Kahoe Farm here we come, again.
