Pristine Parengarenga

“Somewhere ahead is Parengarenga Harbour on New Zealand’s North Island,” Peter Gosnell writes in an article about a kayak tour for The Daily Telegraph. “Legendary oceanographer Jacques Costeau once declared it the cleanest harbour in the world. And I had read that pods of Orca frequently enter the protected waters to hunt stingrays, thick as flies in the shallows. If that doesn’t fire a kayaker’s imagination, what will? My plan is to drive to the village of Te Hapua on the harbour’s shore and meet Dave of Ahikaa Adventures, a local operator offering ‘personalized Maori cultural eco tours’. I have requested the full day tour: eight hours of kayaking, fishing and snorkelling, along with visits to the dunes at the harbour entrance, and to Ngakeno, one of the nearby beaches which lie between the mouth of Parengarenga and North Cape.”