Karikari Beach

Stuart and I begun our day by heading to Shipwreck cove, a small sandy cove which shockingly had a shipwreck. It was a lovely sunny day to begin with and we enjoyed the panoramic views from the gravel road which wound its way down to the small cove. After briefly exploring the cove we headed north-east towards the Karikari peninsular where we had heard that there were some great beaches. It soon became apparent how true this sentiment was, there were so many fantastic looking white sandy beaches that it was difficult to choose one! We ended up going all the way to the end of the peninsular to Karikari beach, which has a pure white sandy beach stretching for 8km. We laid out our beach towels and stretched out in the gorgeous sunshine. For the 2 hours we were there we had the beach totally to ourselves with the exception of 3 people who we briefly saw walking along the beach. The water was cold and had a strong rip tide so we opted just to paddle. 

On the way back to Ahipara we stopped at an impressive looking winery but we didn't stay long as I was driving but we put it on our list for a later adventure. In Kaitaia we picked up some steaks, skewers, corn and some beers for a BBQ at our wee holiday cabin. They are all currently sizzling away on the BBQ, which I can't wait to eat!