January 20, 2019
Our destination today was Whangarei (approximately 2 hours 5 minutes total drive time, including side trips). After having our breakfast at Albert Mews B and B, we checked out of the room and drove to Cathedral Cove. We got to the car park very early but found out shuttles do not start until 9 AM. The upper car park is closed during summer. So we had to walk 45 minutes uphill to the upper car park.
There were great views of the ocean and beaches from the upper car park. We hiked the trail to Stingray Bay and had the place all to ourselves.
At Cathedral Cove the arch is only accessible to walk underneath during low tide. We intentionally took our time getting there since low tide was early afternoon. When we arrived, it appeared we could have gotten there much earlier since the arch area was dry. That was unfortunate since the crowds had already arrived.
We hiked to the Cathedral Cove overlook which was also worth it: great views and quiet.
On the way back we stopped to buy ice cream. I had the rum and raisin flavor which was delicious.
The road to Whangarei was very narrow and curvy with lots of one lane bridges. We finally arrived at the Pohutukawa Cove apartment which was in a nice area directly across from the beach. This was a privately owned one bedroom apartment with a full kitchen.
In the evening we hiked to Wentworth Falls. The hike was one hour each way. It was very uncrowded. The sun was directly at the top of the waterfall and made photo taking difficult. It was a nice waterfall, but due to the rather obstructed view I would not bother to go there again.
Back in town we ordered fish and chips at a takeaway and brought it back to the apartment to eat. We were too tired to go to market to buy anything for dinner. The fish and chips platter was huge and very tasty.