Surf Highway 45 to Oakura Beach

The black iron sand was hot underfoot at Oakura Beach, but the waves could barely be called riding waves.  It was a glimpse into the past for Robin –  this was the beach that he spent many a long hot summer.  First as a young surfer, then as a member of the New Plymouth Old Boys Surf Lifesaving Club. 

Oakura Beach

We took a nostalgic trip along Surf Highway 45 to the little township of Oakura.  The surf lifesaving clubrooms still stands, but has been taken over by the Oakura Board Riders Club.  A new, more modern building across the road now serves as the Lifesaving Clubrooms.

Robin’s old surf lifesaving clubrooms

We sat down to enjoy the view across the beach, sitting on one of several timber benches shaped like a surf board.  In Robin’s day, surfboards were BIG and heavy – at 9ft 4in, not like the much smaller modern ones used today.  It was a fairly quiet afternoon on the beach.  There were several young girls sunbathing on the beach, a couple of family groups playing in the sand, and a few surf boarders playing in the waves.  In the weekends, the beach would be packed, and car parking would be difficult to find.

Enjoying the views over Oakura Beach

A few hardy board riders were out and about

We drove further around the Surf Highway on a quest to find the Cape Egmont Lighthouse.  Interestingly, we found two.  The Lighthouse Museum, is housed inside a replica of the Cape Egmont lighthouse, but sadly was not open today when we visited.  The top floor of the replica houses the 1850s Fresnel prismatic lens which beamed light from the Cape Egmont lighthouse until 1999.  The bottom floor houses a gallery featuring Ernest Rutherford. The man who first split the atom spent several of his university summer breaks at the family home in nearby Pungarehu after his family moved to Taranaki when he was 17.

Replica lighthouse and museum

The 20-metre high original Cape Egmont Lighthouse is located four kms further around the coast.  It was built in London in the 1800s and originally stood on Mana Island, in the Wellington region.  It was dismantled and moved to it’s present site but became embroiled in Te Whiti’s passive resistance campaign.  The reconstruction was halted for four years by non-violent protest for land confiscation, until forty members of the armed constabulary were stationed at Cape Road to ensure it’s completion.  The light started beaming across the seas in 1881, and it was manually operated until 1986. 

Cape Egmont lighthouse still shines it’s light out to sea

After a lovely day out in the sun and sand, we decided not to rush back to the caravan and cook the evening meal.  Instead we stopped off at Cobb and Co restaurant and used the 10% discount voucher which Geoff had kindly donated to us.  Originally the four of us had planned to go out for a meal and use the voucher in New Plymouth, but this didn’t happen and Geoff and Eileen travelled on to Auckland.

10% discount voucher, courtesy of Geoff

Thanks Geoff, we had a lovely meal, with 10% off the total bill.  Robin ordered his old favourite, Hoover Hog pork roast, and I had a lovely meal of blue cod, ratatouille and cheesy potatoes.  We couldn’t help ourselves and ordered dessert as well.  It just had to be a bargain, after all, don’t you think?  By the time we finally arrived back at our caravan, Muffy was cross with being left alone all afternoon, hungry, and very vocal.  A nice big cuddle and a tin of her favourite cat food soon quietened her down.