Beaches, Whangarei and free camping

Heading south from Paihia, we took in a scenic drive around the Tutukaka coastline. This is the gateway to Poor Knights Island, one of the world's top dive sites. Sadly, this was not on the cards for us but we were still greeted with stunning coastline and beaches as we made our way to Whangarei.

You can just see Poor Knights Island in the photo above!

The van has a rest during a beach walk for Maddy.

Then it was on to the largest town in Northland, Whangarei. Just before we reached the town, we passed Whangarei Falls, the "most photographed waterfall in NZ", so we thought we'd just add to the statistic! You can kind of see why they're so popular.

Then it was on to Whangarei. It's quite a sprawling metropolis really, but it presented an opportunity for a free spot of camping. Consulting our bible again, we saw that there was free overnight parking allowed down by the river. Wanting to be sure about these things, we stopped at the i-site to make sure we were parking in the right area. Armed with this information, we set off.

The parking was right by the river basin marina, presenting a lovely backdrop. A nice boardwalk took us along to a cute cafe where we dined by the river. We were slightly concerned that we would have to break out the portapotty as the local lavs were supposed to close at 5.30pm. However we were very pleased to find that they remained open all night, removing the need for us to use our on board loo!

Not bad for a freebie, we thought...