RV Exchange Travel Destination - New Zealand - Best Of The Best Around Kerikeri
The Bay of Islands Farmers’ Market is held in the township every Sunday morning. One of the country’s premier producer markets, it has a good range of local product.
There are around 35 regular stallholders and on sunny days the crowd can swell to around 800 people. Fresh fruits and vegetables are featured; so are meats, cheeses, herbs, preserves and breads. Look for locally-made sausages and, in season, cherimoyas, fresh limes, quinces and tamarillos.
The small Ake Ake (for ever and ever) Vineyard on Waimate North Road is a smartly presented, unpretentious winery and restaurant much favoured by locals. Winemaker John Clark returned to New Zealand a few years ago and has worked hard to produce the Syrah and Chabourci wines that are winning acclaim. This is the place for a long lunch or dinner. The food is fresh, simple and full of flavour. Self-contained motorhomers are welcome to park here overnight.
An unpretentious building off SH 10 near Puketona Junction houses the Mahoe Cheese Factory. Its presence is not loudly announced but the cheeses are much talked about. Anne and Bob Rosevear began making cheese on the family farm in 1986. Now they have a herd of cosseted cows providing milk for their Edam, Gouda, Belrose, cumin, pepper and garlic and chives cheeses. Their ‘Very Old Edam’ cheese is a winner. You can see how they are made in the factory/shop. Other local products stocked include Kaitaia Fire chilli sauce, Nicholbee Honey, Ludbrook House preserves and Case Gilbert Olive Oil produced by a unique method by which the olives are massaged so that the fruit is not damaged during processing.
On Kerikeri Road it is hard to miss the Makana Chocolate Factory and shop where you can watch the weighing, mixing, rolling and wrapping that goes into the production of delicious temptations such as lemon truffles, cherry armagnac chocolates and other temptations.
On Mission Road, close to the Stone Store in Kerikeri, is The Parrot Place owned by parrot breeders Pam and Peter Scahill. I intended to visit for half an hour and stayed much longer. The collection of exotic and native parrots and finches is astonishing – around 30 species of parrot in a walk-in aviary with 13 species of finch. The cages are set among an equally interesting garden of bromeliads and palm trees. They house vibrantly coloured birds from Asia, Australia, South America, Africa, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and New Zealand, most of which have been bred by the owners.
Golfers should note that there is an excellent course just two minutes from the town centre on Golf View Road. The Kerikeri Golf Club has an 18-hole championship course with a great layout and well maintained greens with Windsor Green couch fairways for good year-round playing conditions. Visitors are welcome. If you would like something a little more casual, try the nine-hole Okaihau Course 10 minutes from the town. There are, in fact, six golf courses within half an hour of Kerikeri, including Waitangi, Whangaroa and the prestigious Kauri Cliffs.
In the 1930s, Rev Samual Marsden established a Church Missionary Society farm, hoping to train Maori to farm in “civilised” ways. The village of Te Waimate Mission comprised a church, blacksmith and carpenter shops, a print press, water mill, brickyard, school, barns, stables and implement shed and numerous cottages. Vegetable and flower gardens, fruit and ornamental trees from “home” formed the landscaping. Today, the sole survivor of three houses is restored and filled with the household paraphernalia of the time to become one of the most carefully presented museum houses of the era. The adjacent church has a recently-crafted stain glass window behind the altar.
On Cobham Road in Kerikeri is an imposing modern building with a wave-style profile. It is quite simply called The Centre – an impressive entertainment centre which seats 450 and has a theatre, bar and balcony and several break-out rooms. Keep an eye on the programme. The Centre has already hosted some lively and interesting performances and has a full season for 2008 underway. Recent shows have been Hayley Westenra, NZ Navy Band, Paul Ubana Jones and the international concert pianist Matte Napoli with soprano Lili Campinelli. Coming up in the latter half of February is Kelvin Cruickshank of Sensing Murder fame and Georgie Fame in concert.
Marsden Estate on Wiroa Road is a seven-acre vineyard, winery and restaurant, named for Samual Marsden who introduced the grapevine to New Zealand in 1819 with 100 plantings. Lunch in fine weather is served under a pergola of grape vines which looks down on a small man-made lake, manicured gardens and a sweep of vineyards. The food variety and presentation is excellent. Three of us shared an antipasto plate with a glass of excellent chardonnay and then relaxed for a while in the shady garden. Good wine and food and company to match served up in a lovely setting is a pleasure hard to beat.
Gibby’s Place on Kerikeri Road near the centre of town is a small, pleasantly appointed camping ground with shady trees, a swimming pool and a friendly atmosphere. Kerikeri Top 10 Holiday Park on Aranga Drive is also close to town. It has a peaceful riverside setting and 32 powered sites. Other amenities include an internet kiosk, a booking office for excursions, canoeing and swimming in the river and a dump station.
Wagon Train RV Park is situated at 1265 on State Highway 10. It opened in 2004 and is a purpose-built RV park in a private landscaped setting which also grazes horses. There are 20 sealed power sites. It also handles tour bookings.
Overnight parking is available with permission at Ake Ake Vineyard, opposite the Mahoe Cheese Factory, the Kerkeri RSA and the Waimate Showgrounds and self-contained RVers are welcome to use a paddock next to the Adventure Puketi, the centre for guided walks and accommodation on Puketi Road.
Of the many attractions in Kerikeri, the Basin is probably best known. It’s an easy walk from the town and features a pretty inlet overlooked by The Landing Restaurant and gardens. From there is a short walk to the mound of Kororipo Pa, which at one stage was the home of the great Chief Hongi Hika, Kemp Mission House (1822) and New Zealand’s old surviving building, Rewa’s Village, built as a replica of a pre-European Maori fishing village, and of course, the very picturesque Stone Store (1835), which is the country’s oldest stone building. All these can be visited.
The Stone Store has a small museum on the top floor a shop on the ground floor where visitors can buy all kinds of memorabilia, including pitch forks, nails, scythes and bill hooks – replicas of the implements traded in the Mission’s original storehouse. On one wall is the framed copy of a letter sent to a supplier by the Rev Marsden. “The natives are becoming particular;” it states, “they know a good tool as well as I do, so that I should advise always to send good articles.” The Stone Store shop is also notable for the fact that it is perhaps the only retail outlet in New Zealand where shoppers pay to enter!
From the Stone Store is a one-hour walk beside the river to the well-known 27-metre-high cascade of Rainbow Falls. Just up the road from the store back towards the centre of town is Wharepuke – a large landscaped tropical garden of rare and unusual plants.
One of the most interesting walks, just 35km from the town, is across attractive farmland to Marsden Cross set in a quiet ‘horse-shoe’. The large stone cross marks the spot where the Rev Samuel preached the first sermon on New Zealand soil on Christmas Day 1814. He set up his first Mission Station on this site, although no sign of it remains. The walk is signposted off Rangihoua Road. Another place to walk of quite a different type is the Puketi Rainforest Nature Trail, past huge old kauri trees and a profusion of other natives. It is not a long walk, but to make the most of it allow two hours. Guided walks are also available.
If you have an interest in pre-European history then I thoroughly recommend an hour-long cruise in the purpose-built replica of a period steamboat the SS Eliza Hobson. This picturesque little craft sails from the wharf opposite the Stone Store from Sunday to Friday at 2pm and chugs gently down the river to the estuary. The journey is thick with the remnants of Maori history, including the place where Maori warriors set out on the intertribal musket wars which began in 1821. You can watch Captain Alan Lambourne fire up the woodburning boiler and enjoy some great scenery as you gain an insight into the trials, tribulations and triumphs of those early years.
Author: Jill Malcolm
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