Kaipara Harbour

Today we will travel north so we are close by for an early departure on the Kaipara Harbour the following morning. A buffet evening meal is included.

Accommodation: North Ridge Golf Resort, Orewa (1 night)

This morning after breakfast, (supplied in your Motel Unit), your coach will collect you for the journey along the Pouto Peninsula to reboard Kewpie Too at the old Marine station at Pouto Point. 



Our first stop as we depart Dargaville is the Northern Wairoa Maritime Museum where you will be guided through this facility by one of Dargaville’s local historians. This museum houses the relics and will tell you the story of the many shipwrecks which fell foul of the Kaipara Bar and West Coast as well as the history of the kauri and gum diggers. 



After your museum visit, we head South in our coach towards Pouto Point.  On arrival at Pouto Point, we re-board our cruise vessel Kewpie Too for the journey across the Kaipara Harbour to Helensville, arriving around 6:30pm.

In the morning we will depart for Helensville to board the Kewpie.



Departing along the Kaipara River as the barques and brigantines did in past generations, then it’s onto New Zealand’s largest inland harbour the mighty Kaipara where we make our way towards the Kaipara Heads where you can almost reach out and touch the past as we examine the Kaipara’s former life where more than a century ago ships from many nations came to trade for timber, flax and gum.



Crossing the Kaipara Heads, we view the magnificence of the headlands with white sandy beaches and the Tasman Sea beyond. From the Kaipara Heads, we journey past the large sand island at the end of the Tapora Peninsula before making our way to the early settlement of Pouto Point where once Harbour Masters, customs officers and port officials were based in the heyday of the shipping industry. 



From Pouto Point we cruise through the sheltered inland waterways beside the Pouto Peninsula, we see many remote barren beaches accessible only by boat with their white sands backdropped with the green of newly planted pine forests. We then enter the Northern Wairoa River exploring the many bays and inlets where early gum diggers camped as they tried to make a living from the land. We also cruise by many river settlements where early settlers had grand dreams and plans for major communities, however, today could be described as ghost towns. 



Mid/late afternoon we arrive in Dargaville, our coach will meet us in Dargaville to transport you to your Motel for the evening.

Accommodation: Dargaville (1 night)

Includes accommodation (2 nights), driver and transport, Kaipara Harbour Cruise which also includes 1 breakfast, 2 lunches & evening meals and morning and afternoon tea.