TIME OUT SCENE dec/jan 2013 dec/jan 2013 SCENE TIME OUT

aboutthe coast loopy Y WIFE MELVA AND I ARE After cruising, we wanted a home to come The solitude can be stunningly beautiful, Camera in hand, we discovered beaches It tells about those beautiful places I REFUGEES FROM AUCKLAND. HILTON WARD loves back to. We wanted a small piece of land as can one’s smallness in the vastness of the we hadn’t visited, wonderful bush walks, mentioned earlier. It tells of things we know MIn 1993 we moved onto our 9.6m the Tutukaka Coast so that could have a garden and had easy access ocean be a wonder. There is only the sea, coastal walks, waterfalls, glow worm caves, our guests like to do or take part in but did not yacht Spindrift and began 15 years of living on to an estuary, one where I could pull a dinghy weather, boat and you. These are your truths at big trees, birds, rocks, lookouts, swimming know existed. The book is filled with photos board and cruising out of New Zealand, to and much he wrote a little up to a post on or near our plot, gather sea. Any one affects the other. There is nothing holes and the giant kauri Tane Moana. We illustrating what I am so passionate about. from the South Pacific Islands, with a longer shellfish, fish and perhaps set a net. else. That’s what makes it such an experience. can touch this tree, close our eyes and feel Now, knowing our way around, we visit stint to South East Alaska and the BC Coast. guide book about it We wanted to be near and part of a From our house I can hear the waves on back in time and imagine the arrival of the and revisit the places, tracks, bush and Originally educated at a small, one-teacher community in a rural setting, ideally by the the sandspit on cool mornings, and anytime waka hourua, Tunui-a-rangi and others that beaches mentioned in the book. We canoe on country school, at age 12 I was asked by my sea. We found our goal on our first day of in a storm. I also enjoy the wilderness of our brought the first settlers to Ngunguru. the Ngunguru and Waiotoi rivers, we keep teacher to crew his Idle Along centreboarder The year 1985 saw us in Vava’u after looking, then continued cruising until 2007 long Ngunguru sandspit. We discovered this loop road we live on, going back to places – and who wouldn’t go in races on Lake Waikare. He taught me winning a week long charter there, thanks when we sailed into Tutukaka Marina, had Selling our yacht Spindrift doesn’t mean and its people. We had found the community back to the uniquely beautiful Whale Bay The Tutukaka Coast Loop Road to sail. to Sea Spray magazine’s Boat Show photo a house built on our site and Melva began I have dropped the pick ashore. Sailors will we sought, in Ngunguru; one where people with its sheltered beach and overhanging My parents had a Hartley launch that my competition. There we met cruising sailors, operating The Riverbank Homestay and understand that presently I am ‘hove to’. look out for and care for one another in a quiet pohutukawa, or to the Ngunguru sandspit father and a friend built. That was the start. liked what they had to say, liked the lifestyle B&B, a place to welcome travelling wayfarers. I have another, different boat in mind way and with all of the facilities one requires. with its 2.7 kilometre ocean beach and surf? I sailed and raced on various boats until they had and soon made the decision to I love the sea. I have been to it all my life, (and on paper) in the way of plans that I We have since fallen in love with Ngunguru I do go on. Melva and I were married, then completed return in our own boat. That goal was lived on it longer than I lived anywhere else. intend to build for use on our coast. and its surrounding area, commonly called and launched our first yacht in 1982, an Alan achieved in 1993. I enjoy its soul-filling emptiness when on the We already knew that we liked Northland, the Tutukaka Coast. Mostly we discovered Wright Catalina 7. Holidays took us from Having come from farming stock, in 2003 ocean. Tracey Edwards once stated: “There as we had spent many summers cruising its that the area was largely undiscovered by Auckland to Houhora Harbour, the Hauraki we decided that it would not suit us to grow are parts of life out there that just can’t be coast in our trailer yacht and then Spindrift. people and that it has something very special Gulf, Great Barrier and the Mercury Islands. old in suburban Auckland. experienced elsewhere.” There really are! After settling here we started exploring. to offer residents and visitors. Tutukaka, already world famous as a diving destination, is a one or two-night stop for most travellers. We found that our guests knew nothing of this uniquely beautiful area Draw the line A fun family day out and had not planned to stay longer as the Stop harbour pollution much-publicised Bay of Islands awaited. RuAkAkA RAcEs We asked ourselves, why didn’t they know about this very special place? We found that thuRsdAy 3 jAn all the tourist brochures took visitors diving, fishing or to the Bay of Islands with a couple of other excellent individual Northland attractions thrown in. Not good enough. It was time for change. more information I set about creating and publishing my The Tutukaka Coast Loop Road can be guide book, The Tutukaka Coast Loop Road. Racing action purchased ($12.00) from: Quality family time ISF_002_SM It states that this road is very special, indeed The i-Site, Tarewa Road; The Hub, Free children’s entertainment Adults $10, under 18’s FREE unique, in New Zealand and the world. Whangarei Town Basin; Salt Air Café, For more information visit theraces.co.nz, ruakakaracing.co.nz Starting at Whangarei it takes in a few or email [email protected] Ngunguru; Tutukaka General Store; and side excursions, then heads for Ngunguru, Dive! Tutukaka. Tutukaka, Matapouri and back to Whangarei Or phone Hilton and Melva at 946 0074 via Hikurangi.

Made in Pipiwai – Wedding photography Phil Heatley Imaging with an edge MP FOR WHANGAREI

20 Deveron Street, Whangarei Ph: 438 9992 Fax: 430 3618 [email protected] Flush it offshore or pump it Untreated sewage from boats must be discharged well outside www.madeinpipiwai.com of Northland harbours or at a marina pumping facility. Visit www.nrc.govt.nz/drawtheline for more information. [email protected] Report pollution to 0800 504 639. www.national.org.nz 021 041 2951 10 11