Wind-down weekend on the water

GRAHAM REID spends a quiet couple of days on the Kaipara Harbour.

The stillness of the morning is broken only by the low thud of the engine below deck. A lone gull wings its way across the broad expanse of harbour to where the Tasman Sea crashes against a coastline seldom marked by footprints.

It is a Saturday morning and the sun in a cloudless sky slows the pulse. The mind winds down to slo-mo and the concerns of the working week recede rapidly. Perfect. And yet all around are reminders of destruction and death, of economic and ecological disaster.

As Terry Somers points the bow of the Kewpie Too toward Dargaville in the far distance and leaves behind Helensville, he offers an occasional commentary which speaks of the fascinating but often sad history of the magnificent Kaipara Harbour.

Over here was where primeval kauri forests once stood before they were cut to earth and transported away, over there between those two abandoned settlements was a busy cross-harbour ferry service which has now almost vanished from even local memory, over there was the site of a briefly successful prawn farm which is no more ...

And there - yes, that line of white water and crashing waves which demarcates the notorious bar at the entrance of the harbour - on any given day 20 sailing vessels might be lining up ready to brave the entry and on up to Dargaville. But all that was long ago.

On weekends now when Somers takes passengers on an informative, enjoyable and sometimes exciting two-day trip around the Kaipara to Dargaville, then across the barren sands of Ocean Beach, there may be no other vessel in sight.

The harbour, once a busy trading waterway, is now a silent slab of water encircled by dense mangrove swamp, empty beaches and a vibrant history.

Somers has been plying these waters, quite literally, man and boy. He grew up near Helensville and now runs Kaipara Harbour Tours.

His two-day Great Kaipara Adventure, under way again after its winter lay-off, might seem short on the "adventure" aspect for those who have bungy-jumping on their CV - although plunging down sheer sand dunes on quad bikes suited my prescription.

But for anyone with an imagination, the history of this area with its tribal conflict, early settlement, maritime businesses and diverse cultures makes for a fascinating two days in a beautiful piece of New Zealand, just minutes away from the clogged heart of the biggest city in the country.

Somers' tour starts in Helensville at 8.30 am on a Saturday and the first day ends when the restored Kewpie Too, formerly on the famous Cream Trip in the Bay of Islands, pulls into Dargaville some six lazy hours later.

By then cameras have captured a seal basking on rock at Kaipara's South Head and a glassy harbour reflecting rolling, lush farmland where once loggers laboured.

We have chugged past white strips of deserted sand the equal of any in Thailand or Bali, heard stories of early Maori, Scottish and Dalmatian settlements, and waved to the residents of Pouto Point and other small outposts which pepper the harbour's coastline. We'll meet them tomorrow, says Somers.

By evening his passengers are settled in the historic Northern Wairoa Hotel built by Joseph Dargaville in 1922. The brick and kauri building has undergone considerable renovation but there's a uniquely "Kiwi experience" in the smorgasbord dinner (giant local mussels), the old-fashioned dining room and long corridors which whisper of another age. In one is a photograph of the Queen when she was a much, much younger woman. Quaint is the word.

By dessert those thrown together on the confines of a boat have made friendships. Drinks in the bar consolidate them. The wind-down weekend is beginning in earnest.

The following morning, some slightly the worse for wear after the bonding session, we are aboard Somers' Sand Cruiser, an appropriately named monster bus which will take us to the kauri shop, the museum, and then across the spine of the peninsula to the windswept shipwreck coast beyond.

While debates about the merits of Te Papa and Auckland's War Memorial Museum take up newspaper space, places such as Dargaville's Maritime Museum remind you where another history of this nation is written. It is in the margins where the photographs and memorabilia of people's lives on the land have a powerful resonance because they are so ordinary, so simple and personal.

With a commanding view down the Wairoa River and with Rainbow Warrior masts proudly erected outside, this is a place where large history is recorded in small, telling detail: photographs of local bands at social gatherings in the 20s, the lines on the face of a gum-digger, and the implements of artisans.

The overriding impression? The diverse cultural life which Dalmatian and Scottish settlers brought to this district from their homelands seems to have lasted right up until the age of television. We are the poorer for its passing, and the richer for the efforts of the volunteers who keep it alive in the museum.

And then Sand Cruiser grinds through the gears, bumps us down through slushy farmland and on to a sweep of beach which disappears into mist at either horizon. This is a strip of coastline which belongs to the birds and shipwrecks. We tramp up dunes, and far inland find fragments of unfortunate vessels which didn't make the landfall they expected.

An hour later we are beneath Pouto Lighthouse - built in 1922 and the last remaining kauri lighthouse in the country - and for a modest $5 locals from Pouto Point will take us up to it on quad-bikes. Walking up the sheer dunes is best left to those who like a little body punishment.

The view from the abandoned lighthouse is spectacular and no photograph can capture the immensity of the scale of the harbour and ocean below.

Then for some it's a thrilling, 20-minute quad-bike ride round to Pouto Point while others prefer the comfort of Sand Cruiser. The quad is terrific fun - and the anecdote about being poised on a precipice of sliding sand some hundreds of metres above the turbulent harbour can earn you a few drinks later in the day.

Late Sunday afternoon and the Kewpie Too docks again in Helensville. Handshakes and farewells. Behind us have been shipwrecks and sand dunes, stories told in sepia-toned photographs and musical instruments lying mute in museum cases.

And there has been boozy fun in a classic Kiwi hotel, a sea bird in lonely flight, and the visceral thrill of your face being whipped by sand as you stand high above a now silent harbour resonant with history which echoes long after the final thump of the Kewpie Too engine has faded.

* Graham Reid travelled on the Kaipara Harbour courtesy of Kaipara Harbour Tours, ph (09) 420 8466.

Helensville