We set the alarm for the first time today, at 5am so we could be off at sunrise to catch the morning fishermen! We need to hitch a ride off someone with a boat over the estuary to Marsden Point (there isn’t a ferry and it’s a hell-of-a long way round by land). I was amazed I managed to get Nicky out of bed, but wasn’t amazed with the weather we woke up to – low cloud and drizzly rain.. We decided to forego the rest of the ridge walk which Kim (who was going the other way to us) informed us was steep & slippy, so we headed down the Peach Cove Track back to Ocean Beach and continued to Whangarei Heads on the road.
Turned out to be a good choice as we made great time and found our way to Little Munro Bay by about 9am (where we were told the local fishermen might be launching their boats from). Sadly it looked like the poor weather had put them off, only 2 boats launched, neither were prepared to give us a ride, even with cash offered..