Northland Roadtrip

16/11/10 - 20/11/10

When Monday morning came around, we were ready to go off on our roadtrip! A few others had left over the weekend, and me, Graham (from Canada) and Anne-Marie (from Ireland) were heading up in my car to meet them.

All packed up and ready to leave Auckland!

It wasn't long before Ann-Marie saw a sign for free-range eggs, and said she wanted some. I turned around, but managed to accidentally reverse into a hidden ditch, into which ran a concrete pipe. My car fell down, and I thought I'd done something TERRIBLE. I managed to get out, and upon closer inspection, confirmed that I hadn't damaged my car. Phew!

Ann-Marie showing the scene of the accident, and the sign...

We carried on driving (after buying some eggs), and turned off at a random sign to a scenic reserve. We went for about 17km along a dirt track, and finally came to the Waipu Gorge Scenic Reserve.

We went on a short walk, and arrived at some beautiful waterfalls.

Koru - the Maori name for the opening up of ferns. It means 'new beginnings'.

  

Whilst driving, we were trying to name my car. It took a long time, but Anne-Marie (or Graham, I can't remember) finally came up with the perfect name: Jerry. He was so named because I'd mentioned we were meeting up with a guy called Tom. It's a very fitting name - "Yeah - Jerry's the kind of fun loving guy who likes to wear loud shirts" is how Tom described the name choice when I told him.

We stopped off at the amazing Hundertwasser Public Toilets in Kawakawa

  

We arrived in Paiha to meet our friends, and pitched our tents up next to the ocean...

 A spot of yoga the next morning... 

  

...Our idylic spot also happened to be next to the road! Ah well - 'twas still wonderul :) Henry & Jane's amazing camper van has a roof that comes up to give it a top hat!!

When we got going for the day, we headed over to do the Waitangi Track (leading to the Hutia Creek Mangrove Forest Boardwalk) and see the Haruru Falls. 

The mangrove boardwalk

Drew & Graham at the Haruru Falls

After that, we fancied a spot of wine tasting, so headed to Marsden Wineries. The grounds were truly beautiful.

Most of the group: Jane, Henry, Graham, Drew, Ann-Marie and me

After the vineyard, we headed off to find where we were going to sleep that evening. We decided upon Coopers Beach (again, we were freecamping). Me, Ann-Marie, Graham and Drew were all camping in tents, so managed to pitch up in the most beautiful spot - just above the sand on a patch of grass, right next to the ocean. Amazing!!! After setting up camp, we made a fire and spent a wonderful evening on the beach.

Coopers Beach

Collecting firewood for the fire (collected from dryland, not the ocean by the way!)

Where we set up camp for the night...

Tom and Kat making the campfire

The next day, we headed up to the tip of the north island, Cape Rienga. On the way there, I detoured to go along 90 Mile Beach (one of the only beaches in NZ that you can drive on). I figured you could probably get on it and then get off at any point. I was wrong... once on, we were stuck on there for about 40km. Having not checked the tides at all, I'll admit that I was a bit anxious, as if the tide came in we could become totally stranded! But it was great fun driving 100km/hr along the beach none-the-less!!

Driving along 90 Mile Beach

  

Stopping for a spot of lunch on the way up to Cape Rienga

Cape Rienga - The northenmost point of New Zealand

I let Graham drive Jerry. It was his first time driving on the left hand side of the road, in a right-hand drive car. He only almost killed us twice.

We freecamped by the side of the road again that night, then packed up at first light and headed over to explore some sand dunes.

We used boogie boards to surf down the sand. It was soooooo much fun!!! But the walk back up to the top of the hill wasn't so much fun!

We found a beetle that we befriended, and carried it with us away from the sand. We named him Charlie. It turns out that he was a Christmas Beetle.

We played around in the sand for hours! Rolling down the hills...

Drawing in the sand...

Burrying Graham in the sand!

And all the while, we still had Charlie with us

When we got back to the carpark, we found out there'd been a big issue with a man from the Department of Conservation (DOC) talking to the others who'd not come up the dunes - he thought that we'd camped there (in the carpark) overnight, when we hadn't. He wanted to impose a fine on us, but when he asked us where we'd stayed, different people came up with different answers, as we couldn't really tell him that we'd freecamped elsewhere. We somehow managed to convince him that we hadn't stayed there, but it was all a bit tense for a while!!

We started on our way back to Auckland, and stopped off at a campsite which had some natural hot springs. Boy were they hot and smelly (smelling of sulphur)! But oh so relaxing.

Lots of different wood-enclosed hot pools of varying temperatures (hot to very, very, very hot!!)

It was nice to have Graham sharing the driving

We stopped off to see the biggest Kauri tree. It was freakin' huge.

You can just about see Graham at the base (the red dot)

We made it back later than anticipated, and absolutely shattered. We sat out on the porch, until someone came out and told me what a mess the kitchen was. That meant I'd either have to tidy it now or first thing in the morning. I chose now! And the others all came and helped me. It really touched me that they helped me like that :)

In the Oaklands Lodge kitchen - Henry, Jane, Graham and Paul helping me to clean it up in preperation of my shift the next day. I love them!!