Opononi

On the Monday morning we left Waitiki Landing and drove south down the West Coast. Our destination was Opononi,  where we would stay at Okapoka Lodge, situated on the side of a mountain,  for a couple of days. We stopped for a break at Ahipara, which is the start of the famed Ninety Mile Beach from its southern end. The group spent a pleasant  hour or so walking on the compact mineral sands of this sweeping crescent shaped beach with the rolling surf crashing over the inside reef on one side and a lofty mountain range on the other. We continued on to Rawene and took the car ferry there across the vast Hokianga Harbour,  named after Kupe, the esteemed Polynesian navigator and father of Maori lore, to our lodge.