Wairere Boulders

We get the keys to our new house next week, on the 6^th, so this week we’ve been looking at paint as we thought we’d paint all the rooms before we move in. Paint is REALLY expensive here – about £80 for 10 litres. There is a store called Bunnings Warehouse, which is a bit like B & Q in the UK, so we thought we’d see if they had any paint that wasn’t quite so expensive. We don’t have one in Kerikeri so today we drove to Kaikohe which is about 30km away. They are the nearest town to us that has a Bunnings. We picked up some paint colour charts and they had some paint that was slightly cheaper – only £70 for 10 litres!

It was such a nice day that we decided to drive on to a place we’d seen advertised in the local library – Wairere Boulders. This is basically a valley full of enormous boulders. A Swiss couple bought the valley almost 30 years ago and have turned the boulders into a tourist attraction.

When we arrived we met one of the owners, Felix, who told us the story of the boulders and also how the local community had installed its own broadband! He also told us he was an engineering professor who left Switzerland 30 years ago to have a change of lifestyle by living in NZ.

We then started the walk through the boulder valley. It was a 2 hour walk to see everything. There were massive boulders that seemed to be held up by very little. Some we had to squeeze through or under to follow the path. The boulder trail was a loop but there were a couple of paths off the loop which we took. One was to the bush pool where we saw some local goats clambering over the boulders. The other was to a platform that overlooked a large section of the boulders. It was hot work to get to the platform as it was all uphill and it’s been a really warm day but it was worth it when we saw the view from the top.

After we left the boulders we drove on to Kaitaia, which is further north, and then back east along the coast road through Doubtless Bay and Coopers Beach. We stopped for a drink in a harbour side cafe at Mangonui.

We arrived home just in time for dinner and a rest – but we do get an extra hour of sleep as our clocks go back tonight - we'll then be only 11 hours ahead of the UK.