Pt2 Day 48. Zero Day - visit with friends at Mokau - 9/04/16

Today was a planned rest day and we had arranged with our friends from Te Awamutu, JP and Sue, for them to pick us up from Waitomo for a visit to their property down in Mokau (Taranaki), which is just over an hour away from Waitomo by road.

Got picked up from the campsite about 0930 and headed for Mokau.  They have had the property (I think about 70ha - I'm sure JP will correct me if I'm wrong!) for several years now and have been working to build a habitable "shed" for getaways. Its a long thin block that fronts SH3 and goes back east for almost 3km I think.  The front has some plantation forestry and right out the back it turns into some really (I mean really!) rugged bush clad "hills".  Even JP hasn't been out to the back boundary!

Right hand end living space, left hand end workshop/garage!

The bully and the Landy. Bully is same model we have at home on the farm, but in better nick!!

Haven't driven a Landy for years - I simply couldn't fit in and still operate the pedals!!

Up through the first lot of pines.

We had a great day exploring parts of the property with JP and Sue (I had been there before, but not Belinda) with a late lunch of fish and chips from the Mokau store thrown in for good measure!!  It's great to see the progress that has been made with the place since I was there last (planning where the "shed" might go!).  Before heading back north, we stopped for a walk on the beach.  It was a pretty calm day in the Tasman and reasonably mild, so a pleasant day for a walk.  

View from near the shed looking SW onto Tasman Sea.

The original builders shed in the background!

Pine Avenue?

Water flowing through the property.

A big bluff separates the "front" of the property from the "back". The cut through the rock resulted from an earthquake according to locals.

That's as far as the Landy went - near the bluff.

Further up the property looking down on to the Mokau River.

Mokau River again. Mt Taranaki/Egmont would appear on the sea horizon to the right on a clearer day.

Looking east out towards the back boundary - somewhere out there.

Another fungus captured by Belinda!

Brief loop around through some of a neighbour's property.

Sue and Belinda walked back down the last bit while I hitched a ride with JP!

Indy was keen to play with the foam monsters.

The tide was right out so plenty of beach.

B on the black sands.

Always interesting patterns to be seen on the beach.

A huge thanks to JP and Sue for taking us down and hosting us for the day - it was greatly appreciated :-)  - we even got to do some walking for a change (?!).

After a pleasant day, we were dropped off back at Waitomo in the evening where we had a light snack for dinner as we were still fairly replete from the F&Cs earlier in the afternoon.