Marehako Bay and the fish head eating incident!

Feb. 22, 2011
Surf sessions = 4
Km Driven =4400

We had a nice drive round the East Cape and landed in a beautiful tiny rocky bay with a 300 meter long sandy beach called Marehako Bay...absolutely gorgeous! The geology changes and becomes ancient volcanic basalt, so the rocks and cliffs are very dark brown/black. The flora changes as well and becomes a sea of Pohutukawa trees which have beautiful full rounded canopies providing nice shade. No surf in this area but beautiful sights as we are at the SE edge of New Zealand's Bay of Plenty (aptly named by Captain Cook himself). Upon arrival at the backpacker here, located in a multi-level home sitting right on the water, we discovered a sport fishing charter that had just come in that was getting rid of the head of a huge kingfish (yellowtail)! Alisa jumped at the opportunity to acquire it and set of to bake it in the communal kitchen of the backpacker we were staying at...only to be met with looks of disgust and revulsion by the Germans, French and Irish guests. It turned out to be extremely tasty (cheeks, neck meat and eyeballs). Alisa began her dinner course with an appetizer of its eyeballs (squish!...ugh!). After a sticky humid night with many crickets and mozzies (mosquitoes), George woke up early and hiked over the adjacent rocky point to access a sandy beach and went for a nice long walk to pray to God for some surf (the ocean was as flat as a mirror). Afterwards we got packed and headed towards Whangamata (pronounced Fanga-matah...with a heavy accent on the Mah-tah). We passed through Mount Manganui to check out the surf and it was small mushy windblown ankle-slappers. We did have a good tramp through some tidal pools with Maia and spotted some small shrimp, anenomes, various mussels and limpets, and other sea goodies. After our walk we headed to what would be our holiday bach for the next 5 nights in Whangamata. We got a great deal. George went online to book the place and it was listed at $150 a night as we are still at the tail end of their high season...he saw the place had a 5-night opening and e-mailed the owner to see if we could get a better deal. Well, she said we could have it for $75 a night...never hurts to ask!
We arrived to a cozy 2-bedroom bach that sat beneath a large 4-story holiday home that loomed above it. To tired from our driving led us to dinner and bed straightaway (Kiwi term used a lot).