Wandering boots that wander tour: Day 14 Wandering Whananaki Bridge

By the numbers

1 long footbridge

5,337 steps

3.68kms

The plan for the day pointed towards the Whananaki footbridge as I had been wanting to go there ever since I found out about it being the longest footbridge in the Southern Hemisphere. I did like this idea as it would look cool that I had been there and another local place to have ticked off the list of places to visit. The weather seemed to be nice blue skies and there was a little bit of wind so it could just be a windy day, which wouldn’t be too much trouble at all. Earlier this year when I was in New Zealand in the middle of summer there was a storm that damaged the footbridge that spanned between the towns of North and South Whananaki. I knew by now that it would have been fully repaired.

The drive out to Whananaki took similar roads that we had taken the day before, but we would not be taking the road to South Whananaki, but going up to North Whananaki. The two locations are linked by a footbridge that is known as the longest footbridge in the Southern Hemisphere. I actually managed to make a short video of crossing the bridge, which could be considered to be like an unboxing video. Those are a sealed box of something like a new phone and people film opening to get to the contents. On the south side there happens to be a deliberator and you can break the glass to get the key. Once we had arrived in North Whananaki, we had driven past the bridge as we didn’t notice the blue sign with the steps for walking the local walks. We did go back and walked through the caravan park wondering where the bridge was.  I followed Claude across the bridge and on the way back he followed me, although getting to the other side I was not really sure where else you could actually go. I was not familiar with the area, but do know there is a walk where you could take t least an hour to visit a monument to a ship that caught fire off the coast and a few people perished. That can be left for another time as I do need something to do for other trips.

After wandering back to the car, Claude wanted to have a look at the DOCs camp at Otamure as he would like to stay there some time. We both thought there was no one manning the gate, but someone popped out of the building at the entrance, although I am unsure if they live there full time or if its a working holiday thing. We both wandered around the park and the beach to have a look at the facilities. I did find that you had two choices in making a booking and that was by phone or online, which I found to be pretty good. There was only one phone outside of the park so I don’t know if you could get service or even internet from a phone. I plodded along looking at the nice blue of the ocean behind Claude on the beach even though I never removed the boots I wear so often except to take a fun pic, which I luckily did at the right time as any later my boot would have been floating out to sea. That would be funny watching me hop after my boot in the water. Once we inspected the park and facilities, we went up the road a bit further to see if there was something to look at and then turned around.

The next bit of the day was a bit random as Claude wanted to drive the length of a road called Pigs Head Road as he had not been on it for some time. As in well over a decade, so off we went to see what was down the other end of the metal road, which I would say linked us with the main road again. Along the way I noticed a house being built, cows wandering off to be milked and a group of 20 people at least on the side of a random road with what to be maps in their hands. I was wondering if they were doing a conference type thing or there was an orientation thing going on. No idea if they were looking at putting in a whole new road either so it could have been possible. On the way back to town, we went on a part of the road to the Kauri cemetery otherwise known as Kaurihohore, which is also the name of the school next door. I had never approached the cemetery from that end of the street before from the north heading south. It had always been straight from Whangarei.  Still it was interesting and a short day as w did head back via getting some money out of the bank as I was after some cash.

Tomorrow I will head to Whangarei as granny and Claude have other plans. I am thinking of walking from the Whangarei Falls to the town Basin. I had the idea of following the Dobbys track from Parihaka. I thought of a funny idea by giving the Dobby sign a sock. You will only get that if you see a Harry Potter movie or read the book. There are a couple of things I would like to do in the town before heading back and I think I need the workout with my wanderings. Power up hills going full speed and half killing myself or not.

Links

Online booking for DOCs camping sites
https://booking.doc.govt.nz/ 

Whananaki Footbridge
http://www.itravelnz.com/listing/longest-foot-bridge.html