Ocean Beach

Wow, wow, wow, what a place. Ocean Beach, in Whangarei Heads is an absolute stunner of a place! A local’s piece of paradise… surf, sunsets, rugged coasts…

We park up in the ‘overflow car park’ – this does not do it justice! It’s a beautiful palm tree surrounded patch of grass, minutes from the beach, views up to Bream Head and at the bottom of an extensive garden of a bustling household. (The family provided a source of much interest over the course of our stay. They were always up to something, be it filleting fish, skateboarding, bbqing, bringing the boat in, heading out for a surf. Typically active Kiwi lifestyle I guess!)

Our only neighbours were a group of three – two Germans and an Argentinian travelling in one packed car with a tent. They told us they had only just met at a meditation ashram, where they had spent 10 hours at a time observing complete silence… I wonder what they made of Tom and his constant chatter!! They didn’t converse a great deal, as you can imagine, only to say that in New Zealand, there are lots of places to ‘lay’ (in other words, camp!) and to dismiss the surf  (despite the fact the locals were surfing at all hours of the day, and Tom was getting smashed to pieces on his bodyboard ‘Dora the Explorer’) One morning, we saw the trio meditating on the beach and were pretty entertained to see that one member of the team did not seem quite as ‘in the zone’ as the others, sat on the beach having a scratch. He’d also been the one to peer into our van with a rather envious expression, commenting on our microwave and other mod cons! Seems his heart wasn’t quite in it.

Whilst in Whangarei Heads, we set off on the walk of 10,000 steps – a constant uphill struggle through the bush for 3 hours, only to discover there wasn’t even a view at the top. Take note, future travellers to New Zealand. The time estimations on walks and treks are rather ambiguous!! 

Check out our photographs of Ocean Beach and the surrounding area