Sabbatical Travels: Warkworth and Tawharanui, and How Sidetrips Are Richly Rewarded in New Zealand

We had a little bit of extra time before we were due to arrive at our hosts' home up in the Whangarei area, so on our way up north we arbitrarily took a right turn off State Route #1 and headed towards Warkworth, NZ.

I don't know what it is about New Zealand, but we always were richly rewarded whenever we took an arbitrary side trip like this. And after stopping into the local information center in the adorable town of Warkworth, I walked out with a map and a suggestion, from one of the extremely helpful staffers there, to drive out to Tawharanui Park, just a half hour away.

But on the way, we were sidetracked yet again--after all, who could possibly resist a sign like this?

This was a sign leading us to the Omaha Beach Winery, a nearly brand-new winery here which was offering tastings of several of their prize wines.

We met and talked with the owner and his wife, bought a couple of bottles of their wine, and then sat out in the back and enjoyed the view over a couple of bottles of blueberry juice, a local specialty.

We were busy taking pictures when a local couple approached us, offered to take our picture, and then struck up a friendly conversation. When he found out we were on our way to the Tawharanui Park, he nodded his approval and told us, "It's a nice drive. Gets a bit curvy at the end though."

That turned out to be a particularly monumental example of Kiwi understatement.

Yet again, the photos won't do justice to the actual experience, but this was the skinniest, dustiest, steepest and curviest gravel road we had yet driven on. And it featured locals screaming down the road in both directions, seemingly oblivious to the possibility that another car might be coming around any bend in the road.