The wind from the sea begins howling outside our camper early in the morning and by the time we get up, most of the campers in our Orewa Top 10 site are packing up and pulling out. The rainy, windy weekend forecast has put a damper on everyone's beach plans.
After a quick breakfast of toast and coffee and an hour of WiFi time, we too hit the road, stopping at the $2 store for some camper van essentials (plastic sorting baskets, tea towels, batteries and suction hooks for hanging things) and then a few basics at the grocery store. When we come out, the rain begins — slowly at first and then picking up momentum as we drive out of town, until this very moment, as I sit and type this, it is screaming down, and has been for the past twelve hours. Tonight, after a mediocre Indian meal, we go to see The Kings Speech and throughout the movie we can hear the rain drumming on the roof of the theatre. It's a decent movie, a perfect "British grit and stiff upper lip" tale told in the classic Oscar appealing manner. The Weinstein brothers know how to please their audience.
We drive along the north island east coast in the building wind and rain. The van sways in the wind and I have to keep both hands on the wheel to ensure we don't get blown off the road. Outside of Warkworth, we stop at a Honey Farm where they produce all kinds bee products, from propolis and royal jelly to Manuka, Clover and Tawari honey (derived from the Tawari tree) which we buy. There are even free samples to try. Yum! Behind plexiglass, on the one wall, you can watch the bees in their hive busy at work. We try and spot the queen bees.
The rain now relentless, we decide to push on for Whangarei, where Andrew has lined up an auto shop for us to replace our burnt out brake light. We stop at the i-Site (still goof folks) who direct us to the auto shop as well as a camp site and a laundromat and the movie theatre. We're hunkering down for the storm of the century!
i-Site recommends a camp park just out side of town by a waterfall (and on high ground). Once our brake light is replaced, we drive up and check in. Graham, the owner, gives us a personal tour of the grounds in the pouring rain. Nice fellow.
A rainy afternoon is the perfect time to do laundry and we have plenty — the bed sheets we've been given are in good shape, but smell funny. "Like a hairy, sweaty man," Jenn says. They don't smell great, I agree.
It's throwing it down out there, right now. The van is rocking in the wind. Jenn is saying her prayers that the river doesn't overflow!
We try finding the laundromat closer to our campsite, but get lost and go in search of the first one only to find it's closed when we arrive. The owner directs us to the other one (which we realize we passed right by about ten minutes ago... sigh...)
We do a quick laundry and struggle to keep everything dry (including ourselves) running back and forth from the van to the laundromat. Then it's back into town for our Indian dinner and to catch the movie.
We are realizing that the camper feels a whole lot smaller when you don't have your main living room — the outdoors! The whole day has been an exercise in keeping things dry and contained.
We'll sit and sway here in Whangarei and wait out the storm. The good news is that this cyclone will blow in and then blow everything out, leaving some pretty fine weather on the other side. That should be perfect for the Bay of Islands which is just north of us and we hope to get there in the next few days.
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