Story and photos by Gary Cooper
Our end-of-summer-2018 4WD beach holiday seems like a long time ago now as I sit here listening to the rain on yet another wet and windy Auckland weekend! Regardless, days like this are good for planning your next 4WD trip or reminiscing about past ones, so here is one of our’s from last summer that I recommend.
Day 1. Heading North
We blasted the trusty FJ some 330km up State Highway 1 to the KariKari Peninsula for five days of exploring the region with our Double Kayak on the roof. This peninsula has about 80km of coastline with lots of beaches. All of them are beautiful and basically empty plus some are almost pure white silica sand. We based ourselves in a rustic bach at Rangiputa (44km northeast of Kaitaia).
Day 2. Puheke Surf Beach
Puheke beach looks great due to the curve of the bay, extremely white sand, backed of course by sand dunes and the bonus of no baches. From Rangiputa Road follow the signs to Puheke and continue on the gravel road for about five kms. This takes you to a small carpark behind the sand dunes with the best access to the beach via a soft sandy narrow track on the right.
Day 3. KariKari Beach, Maitai and Waikato Bay
This was the day we explored the Peninsula by doing a loop drive. Our first stop was Karikari Beach. Ufortunately you cannot get a vehicle onto the beach but it is worth the walk down to a unspoilt long white sand beach.
We also checked out the KariKari estate winery for a relaxing lunch and tasted some local vino, which I must say was a great drop accompanied by a freshly baked pizza straight from the wood fire pizza oven. The winery has elevated views across the bay and is well worth the stop.
Day 4. Doubtless Bay & Tokerau Beach
You can drive the entire length of Tokerau Beach but not at high tide. You will have a couple of small creek crossings to negotiate, these also provide the best spots for beach fishing. We dropped onto the beach at the far northern end by Waitamatau Creek and exited at the far bottom end by Aurere Stream after our standard lazy beach day. This area is the most populated and also has the Tokerau Motorcamp right on the beach
Day 5. East Beach
We found this fun 20km beach drive in our old SpotX Off-roading guide book. We drove around the Rangaunu Harbour and accessed the southern end of the beach from the carpark off Kaimaumau Road and drove along the soft sandy track.
To read the full story in the November 2018 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (October 19) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.
