Take your time to rediscover Rodney County

COLIN MOORE heads north, slowing down to sample some of the delights that have sprung up on Auckland's doorstep to tempt the city's weekend escapees.

Rodney County? We've known it fleetingly, a place flashed through after the Friday night traffic thinned, children asleep in the back of the car, tank full and no stopping until we're well into Northland.

Rodney County? Well, there's Orewa (now mostly bypassed), a sign to Puhoi and another to the satellite station. Never touch Warkworth, no need, and rarely forced to stop in Wellsford to refuel vehicle or crew.

Always meant to check out the wooden toys behind the signpost near Warkworth but the children are teenagers now, so I'll have to wait a few more years.

Have spent a lot of time in the magnificent regional parks, particularly Mahurangi; sea kayaked around Kawau and Motuora islands; and once sailed a mullety to the Warkworth town basin. Cruised a few of the Kaipara Harbour inlets and voyaged down the Hoteo River through the heart of the county.

But Rodney, the self-styled playground of Auckland, remains less familiar than the Coromandel Peninsula or the Far North.

Silly me. Vaughan Yarwood's recent tribute to Rodney, Between the Coasts, shows that this is clearly a special area of New Zealand, stretching from a wild west coast and an estuarine harbour to golden east coast surf beaches, offshore islands and sheltered inlets.

In the hinterland are meandering rivers, rich farmland and landed gentry soaking up a rural lifestyle from city profits.

The county, sandwiched between two coasts, was a natural funnel for marauders and when the internecine Musket Wars left it hugely depopulated, it was grabbed by Pakeha immigrants for its kauri forests and easy water access.

They soon flattened the forests, set up ship-building yards and tilled the land for anything from tobacco to grape vines.

But the natural features weekend escapees yearn for are untouched, and to flash by Rodney is your loss.

This time, we turn into Warkworth, where the county has built a new wharf and floating jetty at the town basin.

Time for a latte and muffin at one of the boutique eateries that have sprung up, Devonport-like, in a town that in the 1970s seemed destined to become a large retirement home.

Matakana, a few kilometres away, has also undergone something of a rebirth. The village once thrived because of the water access to its dairy factory, where my father worked briefly as the butter maker. He would still recognise the old factory building, but there is no butter there now.

The building survives because it has become a large shop selling locally-made crafts. The village survives for much the same reason.

Just down the road is an olive grove and a homestay made from earth bricks; an ostrich farm where you can see the birds (and taste them too); and the Morris and James pottery, maker of terracotta and glazed wares in rich, vibrant colours.

There is also the Matakana Estate, a boutique vineyard of 16.3 hectares where we are served wines to taste by Josie Turner, a friendly cellar manager, and Peter Vegar, a director of the vineyard.

Vegar is a great-grandson of Luka Lunjevich, a Croatian who survived the wreck of the Elingamite on the Three Kings islands to plant a vineyard in Kaitaia. The Matakana Estate has a row of vines grown from cuttings taken from Luka's vineyard.

It also has a startling tasting room overlooking the vineyard that uses the rich colours of macrocarpa grown on the property. Timber from the same trees was used to make the trays on which, for $5, you will be served a sample of each of the estate's fine wines. A booklet with space for tasting notes comes with the tray. And if you are moved to purchase, which is more than likely, the $5 is refunded from your bill.

Also taking advantage of the granulated clay soils are the Ransom Vineyard, Heron's Flight, Hyperion, Providence, Antipodean and Brick Bay estates, which qualifies this area on Auckland's doorstep to be called an emerging wine region.

Weekend bolt-holes lay thick around the many holiday home areas on Rodney's east coast. But there may be no better way to appreciate fine country living and the attractions of the county than at Kauri Grove Lodge, in the Rodney heartland of Kaipara Flats.

The lodge sits on a farmland hill where, in the 1860s, the Thomson family built a homestead and set about reducing the kauri forest to pasture. Below the homestead they left a remnant of forest giants which has become a Department of Conservation reserve, a quiet place for lodge guests to walk and a home for a morning chorus of native birds.

Barbara and Paul Vercoe built the four-bedroom lodge in 1997, using some of the kauri timber from the old homestead, to offer the finest of service and food.

It is raining when we arrive. An Aston Martin DB7 is parked outside, its owners taking a weekend break from their children. A log fire is warming the lounge, easing city stress.

Paul Vercoe, quiet, dignified and gracious, is the maitre d'hotel. Barbara Vercoe, quiet, dignified and gracious and a former catering manager at Auckland University, is the chef.

She is a food fanatic and a keen gardener, so her dishes are graced with freshness, homemade sauces and pickles, and herbs and flowers picked while the pots are bubbling.

After pre-dinner drinks in front of the fire, we retire to the elegant dining room. The menu offers leek and green apple soup with parmesan cheese toast, smoked salmon and broccoli tart with a lime and dill dressing, and boned quail, stuffed, wrapped in bacon and served with a grape and port sauce.

The main course is a choice of fillet of salmon topped with grilled macadamia nuts on manuka honey vinaigrette, roast lamb rump with tamarillo and mint sauce, or Cervena served with spicy quince conserve.

The desserts were an upside-down feijoa pudding with brandy sauce, or fresh berries drizzled with rum and honey and topped with ice cream. Suffice to say the meal was as delicious as it sounds.

It is the manner of such intimate lodges that, while you can have as much privacy as you want, guests more likely choose to unwind by sharing the dining table, and coffee and liquors, with strangers from perhaps diverse backgrounds.

So we ignored television and talked the evening away. Paul Vercoe says some people come for the weekend with a list of things to do - and then come back on another occasion with just a book and never leave the lodge.

CASE NOTES

KAURI GROVE LODGE: Winter weekend rate, $250 a person a night, including pre-dinner drinks, four-course dinner and country breakfast. Stay two nights on a winter special and one person has the second night free. Contact: Paul and Barbara Vercoe, (09) 422 5775, e-mail lodge@kaurigrove.co.nz

MATAKANA ESTATE: Matakana Rd. Cellar door wines: 99 semillon $22, 99 pinot gris $24, 98 chardonnay $28. Ph (09) 425 0494, e-mail cellar@matakanaestate.co.nz

OTHER ATTRACTIONS: Matakana Dairy Factory Crafts, Matakana Valley Rd, open seven days, ph (09) 422 7261.

The Wooden Wheel, State Highway 1, Warkworth, home of wooden toys, ph (09) 425 8101.

Morris and James Pottery, cafe and bar, Tongue Farm Rd, Matakana, ph (09) 422 7116.

Sheepworld, State Highway One, Warkworth, ph (09) 425 7444, e-mail shirley@sheepworld.co.nz

To see the huge range of Rodney attractions, including accommodation, click on to the Website www.outandabout.co.nz and choose Rodney district from the various options.

MORE INFO: Contact the Rodney Visitor Information Centres at Hibiscus Coast, ph (09) 426 0076; Warkworth, ph (09) 425 9081; Helensville, ph (09) 420 7468; Kumeu, ph (09) 412 9886.

* Colin Moore unwound in Rodney courtesy of the Kauri Grove Lodge.