Hat Heat National Park camping trip

G'day readers,
Again, we're stepping back in time a few weeks to a camping trip we did up the coast. We camped at Hat Head, but on the far north end of the beach just under the South West Rocks, NSW lighthouse. Empty campground as everyone heads to Arakoon State Conservation Area. It was another empty beach and empty campground for us, just the way we like it!


sandcrabs were busy at work the night before.
it looks like there is a method to their madness with this helicopter view
our campsite. rainforest on the beach, unfortunately complete with mosquitoes.
Where's Waldo (the Kookaburra)?
Goana! Spotted this one cruising down the path next to our campsite and we heard one crashing about in the bush the night before, looking pretty prehistoric
the water's much more blue and clear down unda
post-cutback into the foam, waiting for the reform. On the paddle back out, I saw a shark and paddled straight in as I was all by myself out there (as usual). Sometime surfing by yourself isn't a great thing.
Where's Waldo (CN looking for a spot to rock off into the surf)?

Lunch with a view
View from the lighthouse over the beach we were camping at
View from the lighthouse looking north, you have to hike down to those beaches, no cars allowed
i think we have been spotted
yup, human targets acquired
Can you put your leg over your head like this little guy?
Table for 2

Dinner Party

Back in April we had a few friends over for a BBQ and game night. One of the games was very simple, but turned out to be pretty fun. All you had to do was pick up a cereal box off the floor with your mouth. It's easy until that box shrinks to just an inch or two off the ground

Aotearoa - Part 3

Mountains, forests, caves, beaches, cliffs, sheep, tractors, oceanviews, horses, NEW ZEALAND!

Mt. Taranaki off in the distance. This is the view away from the beach, out the back from Percy. Mountains on one side, beaches on the other...

yup, we slept there last night, it's about as oceanfront as you can get. i have to thank google maps here. i did some serious homework on google maps to find these surf spots, as lefthand pointbreaks aren't too common across the globe.

bri has been asked (nicely i might add) to take heaps of surf photos while down under, and while she caught the end of this wave, i'm always stoked to have documentation of the sessions. had a chat to a few of the boys out in the lineup and this spot is pretty consistent. the west coast of nz gets a lot of swell (it's called the roaring 40's for a reason), and this reef cleans up a lot of swell. this spot's called graveyards.

is this the biggest horse you have ever seen too? by my math, the fence is about 4' tall...which makes that horse...what? 12' tall? can it be legit? this is a photo bri took while waiting for me to catch a wave, wow, a massive horse eh? comment away.

we have camped in some nice places, but waking up to this outside?!?! hmm, yes please!

mt. taranaki in the distance. cows, mountains, acreage...it looks all good until winter blows through.

cows. not too smart.

something about these kind of photos...eternity?

caves on the beach

walk through cave with taranaki in the background

this shot reminds me of the torrey pines on the cliffs of la jolla and del mar. actually, ever since i went to nz, i always thought that if you combine both islands of nz, it's basically cali

beach caves, black sand reflections

climbing

anyone? does anyone live here? i think there's a person every 2 square km in nz.

off to the Coromandel Pennisula, are you getting tired of the empty beaches yet?

we free camped on the otherside of these steps down to the beach. it's was one of our more questionable camp spots. kind of right down the street from a bunch of holiday homes, streetlights, the whole thing...but we didn't pull off the road until after midnight, so no one really noticed until they had to take the dog out for a pee at 6am.

Onemana, NZ. solid snorkeling at the north end of the beach, and unfortunately, no waves for the whole day.

we drove across to the westside of the coromandel that arvo, and free camped down Waiomu Valley Rd. the best part of the evening (aside from this dinner spot) was when some kids pulled into our turnout at 2am, put their brights on our campervan, and bri told me to......grab our biggest knife! too funny, i'm not too sure what i'm supposed to do if 4 guys jump our campervan, but i had that knife at the ready!! lol. sure enough, i think they were just turning around, which is what you're supposed to do in a turn-around...not free camp.

sunset over our dinner spot

we stopped on our way up north at this sheep show farm. we ended up missing the show, but they had a bunch of sheep around the place. not sure what the pink is all about, maybe the ram likes his ladies dressed in pink?

for our last few days in nz, we were lucky enough to stay at our friend's parent's place. deena and brad are some kiwi friends of ours here in sydney. deena's parent's have a gorgeous place in Langs Beach, NZ. house on the hill overlooking the beach in a small country town...dream house!

yup, this is the view...tough to leave, but they just bought a 48' sailboat...so i think they'll be missing out on a the next few NZ winters up in the S. Pacific

atvs, motorcycles, cows, sheeps, acres galore, rivers, streams, a few km of off road track built into their acreage...geez, yes, i'm jealous

we headed up to the waipu caves to do a bit of our own spelunking and tried to capture a few sheep on the way

yup, waipu caves, all you need is a swimsuit and flashlight!

after the waipu caves we headed down the beach for a beer and a surf, life is good

Aotearoa - Part 2

Caving! We headed south after Raglan to the Waitomo area. The greenglow worms, underground rivers, big abseils...how could we say no! Definitely a highlight of the trip.
hmmm, where does this river go?

the way in looking out, reminds me of the sharks of Australia (more on that later)

deep down in the dark, there were two sexy humans clad in even sexier striped leggings

let's go......down!

it's lush around here, you get wet hiking from all of the foliage. all that water for the underground rivers that have cut through the cliffs to create the caves has to come from somewhere.

the biggest abseil of the tour, but first you have to slide through this crack, go babe go!

this was a good abseil, it went negative as soon as you stepped off the ledge...but to get off the ledge you first had to lean back parallel to the ground...hmmm, that doesn't feel normal

glowworms! once we turned off the headlamps and your eyes had time to adjust, they were like the stars at night...absolutely millions of them

glowworm traps, careful bugs, those are some sticky threads

in, out, they both look beautiful

lights, camera, action...this one's getting framed