Many years ago when I was about 12 years old my family use to spend summers at this wonderful place in Northland. We lived in Auckland at that point and I know it use to take a few hours to get there (from a child's memory I thought it was a long time) but was probably at least 3 hours drive.
This is the Kai Iwi Lakes in the Kaipara District of Northland also knows as the Taharoa Domain. Kai - meaning food and Iwi meaning people so food for the people I guess.
From what I know there is trout and crayfish in the lakes, there are 3 altogether; Lake Waikare, Lake Taharoa and Lake Kai Iwi - only the 2nd one is allowed to have boats or jet skiis on it. These photos show the largest of the 3.
My uncle use to go diving out near the middle and come back with crayfish and as kids we use to make up makeshift spears out of sticks and forks and try to spear yabbies, which are small types of cray.
You can see from the water near my feet how clear it is. This goes right out to where the dark blue is then it suddenly gets deeper.
The water is freshwater not salt water and the area covers 538 hectares. The golden sand use to be a favourite for us kids to enjoy every day we were there.
It is open to the public for camping but they have a strict no pets policy which is a good thing. There use to be rows of pine trees around the camp spots but I see that they have been unfortunately cut down which is sad - the world needs more trees.
So, is there a special spot you enjoy for camping?
Comments
I'm partial to a provincial park here called Algonquin.
Kay
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel
I first visited Kai-iwi lakes in August 1969 as a 13-yr old. Trout had been released for the first time the previous year. I caught two small ones on spinning gear near where the wharf now is on Lake Taharoa. I fished the lakes a lot with my brother through to the end of the 1970's - a period of about 10 years. It was always winter-time when the fish were in the shallows. Camped there several times in winter in the 1970's before there were any official camping grounds. Nobody knew about the place in those days - it subsequently got really popular in summer.
Since 1980 I have only been back a handful of times - mostly just passing through on the way to the forest or the Hokianga. My memories are of clear winter nights, the glassy calm lake reflecting stars and the distant rumble of the waves from the Tasman sea just a few kilometers away.