Taumata whakatangi hangakoauau o tamatea turi puka

Beautiful morning so I lingered longer.......

Left around lunchtime to head to the next beach of choice further north along the coast.  Having decided that this holiday would - as far as possible anyway - avoid major highways I headed inland and followed a thin red then orange line north.  Those of you in NZ will know that red is sealed and orange is not...... and it appeared in this instance that orange may also have meant no signposts too!  Part way along the 20-plus odd kilometres of unsealed road I pulled over to let a ute past.  I assumed him to be the local farmer.  About 10 minutes later however, he passed me coming back the other way, slowed down and signalled to roll my window down.

"Where are you heading?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm just in holiday mode heading north to the  coast avoiding main roads" I replied, feeling a little uncomfortable.

"Hmmmmm......me too.....sort of.  This road's a dead end ya know....?"

"Really?  But I thought..." I began, reaching for my map "...this took us to Alfredton"

"So did I but unless I've missed something, it's a dead end."

What were the chances of 2 vehicles being on othe same remote stretch of back road and being 'lost' at the same time?  It felt spooky.

He suggested I drive along the road and check for myself and he'd follow........spookier still.

I did - and he was right!  A road that ended as a turning space at the entrance to a farmyard.  Hardly the road to lead me to my next idyllic beach.

We compared maps again and decided that we must both have missed the turn off which we figured was somse 5-10kms back.  We returned the same way stopping every now and then to check whether a 'track' was the road or the entrance to a property.  And then there it was.......a huge fork in the road with the right arm (that we'd both taken) clearly saying 'No exit'!  The thing we'd both been misled by though was a huge 'Logging Trucks' sign that dominated the left branch.  We'd both glanced that sign, assumed it was the entrance to  a logging area and headed right without even checking the signpost which, incidentally, had all the informatin we needed on it but was positioned at an angle that you couldn't really read until you were level with it!  (Excuses, excuses - it will come os no surprise to those who know me that I missed this sign!)

Once on the correct road it was a simple though somewhat tedious drive - narrow, windy and gravel which meant lots of concentration and no time for gazing at the passing rural scenes.  

By the time I passed this place I was back on more 'regular' highway, but I certainly needed more than a passing glance to take it in!  This place is just south of Porangahau; I'm staying at a little beach camp just to the east of Porangahau.  Peaceful and spacious.  Nice.

PS Check here to hear it spoken if you wish.

PPS I know it's the longest day down here and the Sundasunset challenge had been made,  but I feel longest place name beats longest day!!