Whitianga is a small town on Mercury Bay. It is north of Hahei where we were staying and has a reasonable shopping centre. However it is a 35Km trip around the harbour to get there by road. Luckily there is a passenger ferry just a few kilometres from Hahei.
It goes from the appropriately named
Ferry Landing which has reputedly the oldest hand-hewn stone wharf in Australasia. It was built in 1837 to service the original settlement of Whitianga. Although the passage is narrow there are some fearsome currents as the tide comes in or out.
Above Ferry Landing is
Whitianga Rock, the site of Whakapenui pa. When Cook came the site was abandoned but he was impressed by its position. Today there are earthworks, the sockets into which palisade posts were fixed and a creepy presence but the plants have taken over. Sam and Jena had joined us by this stage and participated in the ascent!
It goes from the appropriately named Ferry Landing which has reputedly the oldest hand-hewn stone wharf in Australasia. It was built in 1837 to service the original settlement of Whitianga. Although the passage is narrow there are some fearsome currents as the tide comes in or out.
Above Ferry Landing is Whitianga Rock, the site of Whakapenui pa. When Cook came the site was abandoned but he was impressed by its position. Today there are earthworks, the sockets into which palisade posts were fixed and a creepy presence but the plants have taken over. Sam and Jena had joined us by this stage and participated in the ascent!
Between Ferry Landing and Hahei is Cooks Beach. We walked up to Shakespeare Cliff
past this family of oystercatchers
and were rewarded with views of Lonely Bay
with Cooks Beach beyond.
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