More power to the people….

Another post out of order….

Saturday May 3rd

Well over the past little while I have been having some issues with my solar panel and realised that the kayak is shading the panel too much so I put the word out to get some idea of what to do and how to go about fixing the issue, increasing my collection power and putting a 240v battery charger in line so that when I am on mains, i can charge the house batteries.

I ended up with Bill Geary from Bill’s Bus Stop in Tauranga. He specialises in motorhome electrics and is brilliant at what he does.

So I was due there on Tuesday May 6th (so I am now over a week behind this blog!)

So when we last spoke (wrote or read) we were leaving Tuapiro Reserve to find somewhere to park for the night. So we headed off to Omokoroa Domain to park for the evening. We arrived and were the second and third vehicle there! So we parked up and wandered around the wharf area.

		Omokoroa Domain VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It was a nice quiet night and in the morning….

		Morning at Omokoroa VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Forom here we moved through to Tauranga and Fergusson Park again.

We went for a long bike ride towards Sulphur Point and came across a train that stopped us getting across the road!

We wandered across to the boar marina and had a look through Burnsco at all the neat things that we wanted and none of the things we needed so it was window shopping all the way!

So from there we meandered across to Greerton Park where we spent a rainy Monday afternoon and evening ready for the trip to Bill’s Bus Stop Tuesday morning.

So Tuesday bright and early I headed off to Bill’s Bus Stop and left my Fredrock Cafe in his careful hands to move the current solar panel away from the kayak, essentially moving it about 0.5m sideways, adding another panel, installing a new solar manager and a 240v charger and cleaning up some spaghetti in the battery compartment.

We went window shopping for most of the morning and then walked along the foreshore around 15th Ave and Grace Road. We finally got a call to say that Fredrock Cafe wouldn’t be ready til the morning so We headed back to Walton for the night and returned in the morning for me to pick up my baby.

It looked good and it was certainly charging up well. There was potential issues with the batteries as they were getting close to the end of their lives but could last a while longer. I will check them for the next few days to see if things even themselves out and they all come back to good levels.

So then headed back to Walton as I had a teleconference to attend of Thursday and then a bit of an interview in Tokoroa on Thursday afternoon for a part time contract position delivering life skills and literacy to at risk youth.

The interview went well and we will see what happens and how it will fit into my lifestyle….

So from there I headed off to Bulmer's Landing for the night where it rained heavily….

From there I moved back to Tokoroa for the night, staying at Lake Moana-Nui reserve. Met a lovely couple there who saw the kayak loader and wanted to know all about it. So I demo’d it and told them where to find one…. Ironically I got a call from Mike two days later asking me to close down the video on YouTube and to pause on the promotion for a month as he was currently totally swamped with orders.

WOW its great to know that between the video and the demo’s we have created a bit of a monster! Good for Mike’s business when he gets production smoothly underway.

From there I crossed over through Rotorua (night at the Stock Car Club) and then headed across to Maketu…. and now I’m up to date and back in order….

Waihi Beach Part 2… The Week That Was.

Ok this is one I missed…..so now it’s out of order…

Well what a week it has been!

I left my friends Dave and Yana on Monday as they packed up to leave and as I reported with the fishing story, managed to catch them a fish for dinner. They were stoked to have one to take home.

So on Tuesday I met up with Brenda and Roger in Dragons’ Rest at the north end of Waihi Beach and we went for a walk across the headland towards Orokawa Bay.

		Track to Orokawa Bay VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We didn’t end up going down to the beach as we decided that we had “done enough for a mello puff”. It was a nice walk but pretty uphill and down dale. Some wonderful views.

On Wednesday we moved south and ended up at Anzac Bay where we launched the kayaks and went fishing in the tidal current.

		Fishing off Anzac Bay VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The photos above were taken by my sister. Thanks Brenda! Neat to have some of me doing things.

Roger managed to catch a kawhai that he smoked for lunch with a lovely chilli marinade. It was simple delicious. He also christened his new smoker.

It was amazing to be in the current that sweeps around the point at the western end of Anzac Bay. The amount of water moving through there is huge and it creates some fascinating whirlpool, eddies and rips. Sometime the kayak is twirling like a dances and then gets caught in the rippling effect where the water is chattering away in tiny little wavelets as the wind and currents meet. The sound of the water was scary to begin with.

Thursday we wandered up the track and made our way down to the same point but on land this time and on first cast Roger caught a nice kawhai but lost him just as he got it onto the rocks. He made up for it shortly there after with a very nice kawhai. I caught one soon after but was much smaller.

		Fishing off the point VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

You can see in the pics what the water looked like.

My fish went into the freezer for bait and Roger smoked the other on Friday for lunch.

Friday we went walking again up the hill towards Shelly Beach and had a great wander up to the top of the hill. The view was amazing.

Had an interesting episode with the Rescue helicopter the following morning. It came in to land just across the earthworks from where we were parked.

They were setting up for a shoot with the Coastguard boat that appeared shortly thereafter…

Not sure what they were shooting but it was obviously well coordinated with the everything moving in sync.

So from there we moved in towards Tauranga for my meeting with Bill from Bill’s Bus Stop, who is going to sort out my electrics.

I am moving the existing solar panel, adding a new one with a new solar controller, putting in a 240v battery charger and sorting out the spaghetti in the battery compartment.

So on the way we called into Kauri Point with the intention of possibly staying the night, but it was not suitable but it was a nice spot. There is a carpark quite a distance from the water where you can overnight but its not very level and quite shaded with trees. We stopped for a wander around, going down to the whaaaaarf. No not a typo.

It goes out for a very, very long way. There were heaps of terns and sea gulls on the railing.

We also wandered across into the actual township of Kauri Point. Quite a largish settlement.

The pic above is of the reserve at Kauri Point, a huge area but a long way up from the water. I came up the stairs to the reserve and it was 5 mins of stairs all the way!

From there we moved backwards to Tuapiro Reserve, which is an awesome place. Lovely huge park

and a great walk up the peninsular to the end opposite Tanners Point. Went for a lovely walk.

		Tuapiro Reserve VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The one great thing about the Eastern Bay of Plenty Council is that they tell you exactly where you can park, for how long and how many can stay there. The signs have a map with either the allocated area in red or starred to show where to park.

Unfortunately at the domain, the rules were three vehicles max, for three nights only, and as there were already three vehicles there we decided to move on and not break the rules.

There is more to come…..

Pacific Coast Highway….

 

Last night was spent at Maketu. A lovely quiet spot on the coast out from Te Puke.

I am heading along the Pacific Coast Highway towards Hawkes Bay.

I am sitting currently at the DoC camp at Matata.

On the way here via Tokoroa and Rotorua, I came across the Okere Falls where I was just in time to see three white water rafts going over tow of the falls.

		Okere Falls VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Was quite spectacular and a lovely walk to get there.

I spent a lovely afternoon at Maketu, unfortunately the tide was wrong for the kayak and no wind for the sail boat.

After watching the herons feed, I set out down the coast to Matata and one of the first motorhomes I see in the campsite was the Flying Tortoise. I have been following his blog since coming across him on the NZ Motorhome forum.

When I dropped over to say hello there was a young man there as well putting on a large tramping pack.

I was introduced to Brando Yelavich, a 20 year old who is walking the entire coastline of New Zealand. He has been on his trek since Jan 31, 2013. An amazing young lad. I believe something like 7000km have been walked so far. He is heading back to Cape Reinga to complete the journey. He is essentially living off the land and has an inflatable raft for river mouth crossings. He has a live GPS tracker on http://followbrando.co.nz/ 

His Facebook page is here https://www.facebook.com/RunningFullaNZ/info

Well I’m off to catch some dinner. Will update more tonight.