weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Earlier on this DownUnder trip, while staying at a B&B in Albany/Western Australia, we happened to start a conversation with one of our table neighbors at breakfast.

Turned out she was a New Zealander, so we told her we were eventually heading for her country. Of course she asked us what we were going to see, so we give her a brief outline of our intended route. Before leaving on a trip, I always have a pretty good outline on what we wanted to cover, but I am often changing minor details and always leave a few days open for eventualities. She then exclaimed: "You are NOT going to drive the East Cape Road??!!". Well, I had to confess that I did not know what she was talking about, so she explained that in her opinion that was one of the most exciting and secluded drives in New Zealand that even most New Zealanders were not familiar with - and she highly recommended that we work it into our schedule.

Well, we do have those extra joker days for our eventualities, so we looked at this route and decided to give it a try, it was just a long looping detour of one extra day on our way from Napier to Rotorua. And since we typically do not reserve our overnight stays for more than a day or two in advance, that created no problem.

When researching this new route, we chanced to see the mention of Anaura Bay, where the British explorer James Cook landed on 21 October 1769, together with this info we also saw some quite enchanting photos and noticed a highly recommended B&B to boot, thus we grabbed the chance and made at short notice a reservation there.

So here in today's post you see us at Anaura Bay, and it definitely was a beauty: VERY secluded, no restaurant or anything around, so it pays to ask for dinner at the B&B when making the reservation (you can also do your own cooking but you need the supplies), and it comes with a beautiful bay and beach. Our excellent breakfast was served in our room with the picture-perfect window view from the table to the bay - judge it for yourself, you can see it in photo #4. And if you ever have a long drive in NZ in mind, consider including the East Cape Route.

For best quality, please view in Download.

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1 - Approaching on the highway: First glimpse of the bay

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2 - B&B Rangimarie Beachstay: Dawn over Anaura Bay seen from our room window

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3 - Dawn over Anaura Bay

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4 - B&B Rangimarie Beachstay: Perfect breakfast setting with spectacular view over Anaura Bay

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5 - Early morning at Anaura Bay

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6 - B&B Rangimarie Beachstay: View to the waves rolling in

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7 - On the Beach and under a fantastic tree canopy

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8 - On the Beach

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9 - On the Beach

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10 - On the Beach: Wave action

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NMGal Loc: NE NM

I would send that lady a heartfelt “Thank You”. Beautiful place.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

My kind of place.
Good set.

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Barbara - I might just do that and send her a link to this post.

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Bill for the thumbs!

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Good to hear Richard and thank you!

bertloomis Loc: Fort Worth, Texas

What time of year were you here? The weather throughout this whole series has been wonderful!

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thanks Bert for watching the series. We were there in our early fall, their spring - the entire trip was timed so as to hit the spring flowers in Western Australia, which meant that we were a wee bit early for the blooms and weather in the southern part of the South Island, but overall it worked out very well. We were 54 days on the road and of course had a few not so clement days, particularly the first 3 days on the South Island, from Christchurch down to Dunedin, but the rest was really amazingly beautiful. Had another half-day of rain when driving the Great Coast Road from Greymouth towards Nelson, but that actually enhanced the coast experience there. Here are our exact days if that interests you (in 2015):

8.31- 9.05 Cook Islands
9.06- 9.21 Western Australia
9.22-10.03 NZ South Island
10.03-10.15 NZ North Island
10.16-10.22 Fiji

dancers Loc: melbourne.victoria, australia

OH my!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had not heard of this spot either...................thank so much for sharing!

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you dancers!

Dr.Nikon Loc: Honolulu Hawaii

Weberwest.., wow .., what a vacation .. pics are wonderful ..I love them all especially the breakfast table shot ..,

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Bob - it really was quite a vacation trip ... and that breakfast table shot wants me to go back there again, not only was the setting great, the breakfast was fantastic as well!

dancers Loc: melbourne.victoria, australia

looks to me like grapefruit..............ugh............have you eaten whitebait fritters yet????

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

It was grapefruit - and I love grapefruit - except that I am no longer supposed to eat them because of complications with one of my medications - so I don't , but definitely made an exception at Anaura Bay!

Whitebait fritters - yes I have had them, and they are fine.