Northern Beach Hopping

Getting the gorgeous weather we were hoping for, we started in Maitai/Karikari Bay at a beautiful, HUGE beach with blue blue water and really nice sand and lots of pretty shells.  It was basically deserted!! We were the 2nd group to occupy it that morning and later on when there were about 12 people on the beach, we talked to some people who said they lived up the road and said this was the most people they’ve ever seen on the beach!  It is pretty far out at the end of a fairly empty peninsula but definitely worth the drive as far as we were concerned.  Next we decided to check out Rangiputa beach as it was a recommendation, but it wasn’t quite as empty and much less impressive because we were expecting even nicer and more secluded than the first one we went to.  We decided (since we were driving all the way back to Auckland tonight) to carry on our beach tour and drove up to 90 mile beach, the northern most west coast of the country where the beach goes all the way up to Cape Reinga.  You can even drive up there along the beach via one of it’s many access points!  And we found it hilarious that the road going onto the beach the speed limit was 50 k/h and once you were on the beach it was 100 k/h, same as the highway!!  It was a lot of fun though and the surf was awesome, lots of nice waves to play in!  We kept driving down the west coast, or just inland from the coast, took the carry ferry which across the Hokianga harbor and stopped at a really nice scenic lookout place at its entrance. Then we drove through the Kauri Forest where we visited Tane Mahuta, the huge, ancient Kauri tree. He was massive!!Here is where the last photos of the trip were taking, bringing the grand total to about 3,600!  I managed to get it down to about 1,800 on my computer.  Overall, it was a great holiday and we saw more of the country than most Kiwis have!  We covered 4000k in the campervan and 1000 in the rental car, so 5000k in three weeks, not bad.

Beach #1

90 Mile Beach, goes on for probably 80 miles behind me!

yep, that's the speed limit sign for the beach

car ferry

very, very large tree!

Cruising the Bay and Waitangi

Today we boarded our dolphin discovery vessel at about 8:45 and departed to pick up some more passengers in Russell before taking a guided tour of the Bay of Islands (not quite all 144 of them luckily).  On the way out we saw a couple of bottle-nose dolphins and then later a larger group of common dolphins.  We went about 20 miles out to sea to see the hole in the rock, an actual hole through an island.  There were quite a few passengers starting to feel seasick and apparently someone was sick on one of the sets of stairs so the driver decided to head to our stopping place on Urupukapuka, the largest of the islands.  We had one hour to spend there so we took the scenic walk up the hill to get the 360 degree view of the bay.  We went down to the beach to feel the water before hopping back on the boat and cruising back to Russell and Paihia.  We got a quick bite for lunch and then went to Waitangi, where the treaty was signed between the British settlers and the native Maori people.  We watched a cultural performance to learn a little bit about Maori culture.  The male members of the audience got to learn some haka basics (a welcome greeting or battle intimidation) and the female audience members got to learn how to use the poi (a ball on a string).  Mom got a little carried away with her swinging and smacked her poi into mine and knocked it right out of my hand!  We then had a guided tour of the treaty grounds, seeing the giant waka (war canoe) and the treaty house and meeting house decorated with all different types of Maori cavings from all across New Zealand.  Now that I’ve learned a little about New Zealand’s history, I can better understand Waitangi Day, coming up on the 6th of February, a bit like our 4th of July!  After Waitangi we went to find Haruru falls in the daylight...only to find it wasn’t that impressive and we were RIGHT at it the night before.  And then we continued our drive farther north to Doubtless Bay were we at fish and chips for dinner at the famous Mangonui fish shop and stayed at a motel-like Bed and Breakfast with yet more excellent hosts!

A few common dolphins off the side of our boat

Hole in the Rock

The only island in the bay that you can camp on

View from Urupukapuka

our cruising vessel

Mom learning the skill a bit too well...

Learning the Haka

Kauri tree stump, about 2000 yrs old when cut down

Waka, powered by 80 paddler men, and can carry up to 120

Haruru Falls

Our jug of milk

Tutukaka, Matapouri, Paihi and Russell

People really weren’t kidding when you could almost see the whole north in a day!  (Although you wouldn’t want to, the beaches are definitely worth spending time at!)  We asked our motel host in the morning for his suggestions on places to see as well, and continued our drive up the Twin Coast Discovery highway (up the east and down the west).  The first stop off was at Tutukaka marina for a few pictures, then on to Matapouri  Beach, very beautiful!  It was such a nice day so we spent a little bit of time there.  Mom and Dad hiked to the mermaid pools, though there were no signs and trail markers like the book described.  Apparently a rock collapsed blocking the trail, but we met someone  who had found another way there so they decided to take on the challenge and hike up and over the rocks down to them.  I decided just to lay on the beach while they did that.  It was really rough terrain and not so nice on the feet, seeing as no one had proper shoes and ended up barefoot!  What was supposed to be a 10 min walk turned out to be about an hour, including spending some time at the pools and Dad went skinny dipping!  I started out laying in the sand mostly in the shade, but as the time went by the sun moved and ended up with quite the shorts tan!  We next stopped in Kawakawa to see the most photographed toilets in NZ designed by some fancy architect, basically the town's only attraction!  From there we drove up to Paihia, found a place to have some lunch and booked our cruise of the Bay of Islands for the next day.  Then we decided to go check out Russell and took the little ferry over in the evening.  Much to Mom’s dismay all the cute little shops were closed already, but we still walked around the town and up the waterfront.  We decided to sit outside at a restaurant and have a glass of wine and some appetizers to watch the sunset.  When we ferried back we attempted to go and find Haruru Falls, because according to the book they are nice to see at night.  We had no such luck and the next day found out that they weren't too impressive after all, and RIGHT next to the road where we were the night before, just was too dark to find them!  That night we stayed at a motel just down the road from the wharf (and got our little jug of milk!) so that we could easily be there at 8:45am for our cruise and had a nice convenient place to leave the car.

Tutukaka Marina

Matapouri

Mermaid pools

playing little mermaid

Kawakawa, most photographed toilets in NZ!

ferry to Russell

Russell

very large tree in Russell

on our search for Haruru falls at least we found this for Mom