Several times a year I travel from my home in Kaikohe to Auckland to visit family. On the way, I pass the road to Port Albert. For years I have intended to detour there to have a look at the settlement and take some photos but have always been too focused on getting to Auckland or getting home on the return trip.
I had a bit of spare time on the most recent trip to Auckland so finally made the detour to Port Albert.
To say the least I was a bit disappointed as since it is one of the oldest settlements on the Kaipara Harbour I hoped to find some lovely old houses to photograph. Instead, I found mostly fairly modern houses, some not even finished landscaping around the new house.
At the end of the road, there is a wharf and quite a nice reserve which would be good for a picnic and is okay for freedom camping. On the way out of Port Albert I saw, and photographed, an old boat anchor that was beside the driveway into a house.
I may not have given Port Albert a really good look around and there may indeed be some nice old houses there but I didn't see them. Perhaps the clue is in the sign where it says that the original plans for a township were thwarted.
There is not much detailed information about Port Albert on the internet, but I found this from the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection - Cyclopedia of New Zealand 1902 - to be of some interest.
