Save the sparrow
By some miracle, the baby sparrow had survived the night, so it was time to see if it could be reunited with its parents before exploring any other options.
The problem was, there were chickens and ducks wandering around, and we wondered if they’d perhaps been the ones to bully the baby sparrow in the first place…
I went and tried to put the box on the ping pong table near where we’d found it in the hopes that its nest had been in the trees hanging above. However, after a quick trip to the loo, I came back to find the hatchling scrabbling about on the floor and the chickens closing in…
I kept the sparrow safe until the chickens had moved away, and then tried to release it again. This time, it eventually started calling for its parents, and attracted some attention from nearby adult sparrows. But they weren’t feeding it, so I still couldn’t just walk away.
I walked back to camp to find Anneke had befriended every other bird in town.
We packed up and left and informed the lady at reception about the baby sparrow and she said she knew a bird woman in town who might be able to help. That’s as much as we could do… and just hope for the best.
Long Beach
We’d seen signs for the Longbeach Coffee Cart around town and at Hōne’s Garden, so it seemed a good place to get our morning caffeine dose before setting off north for Maitai Bay.
It was a slightly grey morning, but still warm enough, and we enjoyed a nice coffee from the cart along with granola and yoghurt from the chilly bin.
Next, we took the car ferry back from Russell to Paihia and headed north for 90 minutes to get to Maitai Bay (recommended by a few people!)
Maitai Bay
We stopped in Mangōnui on our way up to look at a shop Anneke had wanted to check out. The town itself was quite small and wrapped along the waterfront, which seemed to be fishing-heavy. We didn’t see anywhere we wanted to stop in particular, so we carried on, wondering about stopping along the way somewhere to eat our leftover pizza. And there were many options, including Doubtless Bay and Coopers Beach, but once we were in the car we didn’t really want to stop.
So we carried on all the way up to Maitai Bay and parked just beyond the campsite, next to Waikato Bay.
While Waikato Bay looked like a slice of paradise, we’d heard a lot about Maitai Bay, which was a short walk through some mini dunes away.
We sat down with our pizza and chilled out. The toilet facilities here were basic, but at least they existed… but we were glad we hadn’t decided to camp here for the night as it was quite the downgrade from the facilities we’d so far ‘enjoyed’. And that was saying something…
Only hours after trying to rescue a sparrow, we were greeted by a random dog that had made its way round the beach to us. We couldn’t see any possible owners (the beach being largely empty) and the dog only had a worn collar with no tag on it. She looked healthy and was very affectionate and friendly, but rather skinny and we wondered how long she’d been walking around on her own in the heat. She wandered off to another set of people and we lamented our short-lived new dog.
Anneke went back to the car to rearrange our belongings a bit, only to be greeted again by the same dog. Worried about her possible state of dehydration, Anneke gave her water and tethered her to the car which could provide shade from the sun.
We continued enjoying the beach, attempted to snorkel (no fish) and swim, and then a while later decided we ought to make a move and get to our new campsite… and maybe figure out what to do with the dog.
While packing up and getting back into the car, some local people told us the dog probably lived nearby but the people who live in such houses can barely look after themselves, let alone a dog. This didn’t exactly fill us with confidence… but we wanted to see if we could identify where she came from before possibly trying to give her a new life elsewhere. As dog owners ourselves, we both know how horrendous it would be if someone walked off with our dog, but the apparent lack of care for her well-being did concern us. Dogs aren’t even allowed on the beach area because of native nesting birds!
We drove to the local town to ask if anyone knew what the dog’s name was or where she lived. The first set of people at the corner shop didn’t know, but the woman at the fish and chip shop across the road immediately identified her as Lulu.
Damn! She is known. So we took her back to the beach where she apparently lived. The chippy woman reckoned she’d find her own way home and this was quite normal. With heavy hearts we tried to drop her off roughly where we’d found her. After the first attempt she followed and ran after the car for a while, so we drove to the other beach car park.
While our hearts were breaking, she eventually found another group to tag along with, and we were able to drive off without her… albeit reluctantly.
Ahipara
After the drama with Lulu, we drove 1 hour to Ahipara Top 10 Holiday Park, which was a really well equipped campground with several self-contained units. We set up our tent and made our famous burrito wraps for dinner again. After dinner, we went to the communal games and reception area and played some cards and battleships, with a few beers to take the edge off.
All in all, a day of beaches and animal-saving!
Blonde on a Road Trip 
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