Whangamata

We stayed in Whangamata with Kim and John and all of John's family. There were about 10 different campsites that held his relatives so we enjoyed getting to hang out with the whole Kelly tribe and feel a part of the crew. We were 120m from the beach and spent some days playing in the waves and enjoying the sunshine.


We had my birthday while up there as well, and Kim went to great lengths to organise a surprise cake for my birthday dinner at a restaurant. It became difficult due to the fact that the cake could not be taken in early to the restaurant because the new owner of the place was being very difficult and was certain that they "sold food, not given food from customers". We were pleased to take our business elsewhere to a restaurant up the street who accomodated (and made some good money) off the party of 10 we had. Of course, I knew none of this as Bryce and Kim were trying to keep the whole cake thing a surprise still!

One of the coolest things we got to do was walk to the island, at low tide, which is just offshore. It was pretty cool to navigate your way across a sand bar to get to another landmass! Supposedly, several years ago, they had to rescue some locals who walked across but then could not make the return trip due to a school of tiger sharks who had decided that the sandbar was a nice place to hang out and play. (the pic below shows Whangamata beach with the island we walked to on the left)