Monday 2 January 2006 – Havelock North - Masterton


Trip: SH2 – Havelock North – Pakipaki – Te Hauke – Opapa – Pukehou – Otane – Waipawa – Waikpukurau – Takapau - Norsewood – Matamau – Dannevirke – Woodville – Mangatainoka – Pahiatua – Eketahuna – Masterton – Tinui – Castlepoint – Tinui – Masterton

End Mileage: 174574

Start Mileage: 174200

Distance Travelled: 374

Left Havelock North camp site at 9:15am, well we drove over to the dump station at the camp site!


We emptied the grey water tank at the camp site so we actually didn’t make it to the road till 9:30am.

We stopped at Waipawa at 10:15am to have breakfast – hmmm, for variety bacon and bagels. We did look at stopping by the Waipawa River but didn’t find any decent parking areas so ended up just parking in the play ground car park in “town”.



But, SHOCK HORROR we did find an OPEN café – “Hum ‘n’ Buzz”. So we had a takeaway coffee and tootled on our way about 11:15am. Great coffee and the food looked lovely – all home made. Also a couple of rooms with an art gallery showing local artists pieces. Quite cool.

We then stopped at Norsewood about noon. A great glass and craft shop there (“The Depot”) which seemed really well priced (e.g. cheap) and they had a lot of stuff. Rex brought a glass globe and I got a Christmas decoration. We had a quick look at the Norsewear factory shop as well across the road but didn’t see anything worth buying. The wind was really beginning to pick up while we were there.

Next stop was Woodville about 1pm. Really windy and gusty driving today – we saw some wind damage. Some fences blown down (one we saw being a 6 foot high fence about 6 panels long that was just snapped the posts at ground level).

Had to do a road detour coming into Mangatainoka where the Tui Brewery is as a tree had fallen over the road. Of course, we are not quite out of the back country yet and the brewery shop was closed. It’s where they used to brew the beer but now it’s used for commercials on TV and the beer (I think) is actually brewed in Auckland, definitely not brewed here.


Other wind damage we saw on the road was after a station wagon towing a coffee cart/trailer had gone past us. Twenty minutes later we passed it and the coffee cart/trailer had obviously been blown over and off the tow bar of the station wagon. There were bits of coffee machinery and all sorts of stuff covering the road, so much for that business for the holiday period.

Then joy of joys we got to Eketahuna – overcast, wet, windy – we didn’t stop, just drove through. Didn’t seem to be anything that we needed to stop for there.


Got to Masterton just after 2pm and did the diesel fill up. Thought about what to do next so we decided to drive off to Castlepoint (only 64 kms from Masterton) and we were undecided about where to stay the night. Had rung up the Castlepoint camping ground and there was space for us. So 2:20pm and off to Castlepoint.

Came across a “decorated” Toy fence:


Poor Mickey



Found the pub carpark and used this for a food stop – ham sandwiches. This was at Tinui which seems to be the pub, local school and corner store/museum/craft shop. Rex (to keep up the standards) brought a bottle of Castlepoint Merlot from the corner store. We got to Castlepoint itself just after 4pm, after having seen quite a few people driving back the other way that looked like they’d been camping – well it was rather windy! Trust us to be going to a place as people were leaving it. Anyway we kept on going - we weren’t going to let a little wind deter us from seeing another lighthouse.


Castlepoint Lighthouse

The light shone for the first time on 12 January 1913. It was built with the intention of assisting ships to make landfall on passage from Panama to Wellington and was one of the last attended stations to be built in NZ.

The cast-iron tower stands 23 metres high and 52 metres above sea level. The light flashes 3 times every 30 seconds and can be seen for 26 nautical miles (48 kilometres).

The 1000-watt lamp operates on mains electricity with a diesel generator for standby power. The light originally burnt oil as a light source and was converted to diesel-generated electricity in 1954, and then to mains electricity in 1961.

The light was fully automated in 1988 and the lighthouse keeper was withdrawn.

The operation of the light is now completely automatic and is monitored by a computer and Maritime NZ staff in Wellington.

Views of the Castlepoint lighthouse.





Views of the beach.



The local boats and “small” transport tractors.



We walked out to the lighthouse – thank goodness they had (in most places) a railing to hang on to when walking out across the sand and up to the lighthouse. Quite strong winds coming in from all directions. Blew out all our cobwebs anyway.

Lighthouse from the beach: Walkway to the lighthouse (oh, no steps):


Rex at the lighthouse:


Looking out from the lighthouse:


Couple of guys bringing up a crayfish pot – unfortunately empty!



View back to the Castlepoint Camp ground and beach.



Along the beach road.



Uh huh, just in case there is a Tsunami here is what to do:


We decided to go back to Masterton for the night so that next morning we would then not have the extra drive from Castlepoint. So back along the road and we got to Masterton by 7pm which wasn’t too bad.

We stayed the night at Mawley Motorcamp – neat, clean, tidy and by the river. Went for a walk around the camp site, cooked dinner and just relaxed. It was great.

Masterton Camp ground camp site views.

View from BILITY:


BILITY plugged in for the night.



Other campers and caravans.


The river that the camp site is based beside.




Links

East Cape and Feilding index page

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