Welcome back readers - Apologies for the rather large gap in posts - New Zealand is a little bit backwards with regards to internet access - it is rarely available, never free and I lack the tools to hack encrypted networks (it is also slightly illegal).
We arrived in Auckland on the 17th of January and picked up our home for the next two months. Delilah, as she is known - christened after Stoke beat Arsenal in the FA Cup, is a lovely little van with just the basics.
We hung around in the city for a couple of days, buying bits'n'pieces from Warehouse and Pak'n'save to aid us on our two month tour of the Land of the Long White Cloud. Auckland is a pleasant enough city and saw a few sights including One Tree Hill (although it has no trees on it at the moment - bit of a sore point).
No Tree Hill - but great views over Auckland without having to climb the Skytower - The southern hemisphere's tallest building...
We headed north from the "City of Sails" driving up the west coast. Stopping where ever or when ever we wanted - It is a great feeling to be free to do what we like and not be constrained by bus timetables.
Despite being only a short drive out of Auckland this coast is rugged, wild, mostly deserted and truly fabulous. Our first stop was Karekare, which is one of the most dangerous beaches in New Zealand and where someone out of Pearl Jam nearly drowned while visiting someone out of Crowded House, apparently! No sign of any damp pop stars while we were there though, no sign of anyone actually.
We stopped for a night at Piha, stumbling across the World Junior surfing championships while we were there; these kids were amazing to watch and provided us with an afternoon of entertainment. (Please refer to blog entry from San Juan, Nicaragua for photos of similar surfing ability!)
Moving on up the coast we visited a gannet colony at Muriwai, which sparked a frenzy of Galapagos style photograph taking from Temple and I had to drag him away to continue our journey northwards. Our next two campsites were conveniently water side and Dave whipped his rod out at every opportunity, while I relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful, unspoilt, uncrowded surroundings.
Delilah, Kate and Rod!
Dave's first NZ snapper - Greedy little buggers; I was using a huge hook and still only managed to catch the small fry.
Having not made it that far north in our first few days we needed to get a few miles under our belts so we ignored the attractions of Dargaville (not hard) and pressed on until we reached Waipoua forest, which is the largest remnant of the once-extensive Kauri forests in this area. We visited the 2 largest kauris left in New Zealand, both were magnificent and incredibly wide and it was easy to understand why in Maori culture these trees are seen as forest gods.
A few miles further north we hit Hokianga harbour and stopped to admire the view before descending to the coast and setting up camp for the night on its shore.
Opted for the car ferry to cross the waters of the bay the next morning and then stopped for a humongous cooked breakfast in a quaint Victorian town called Kohukohu. With our bellies full we motored on and briefly visited the southern most point of 90 mile beach, Ahipara; Dave was very excited as we entered the town and started coming over all Keanu, as this place is the setting for surf film 'Endless Summer'. After the obligatory place name photograph was taken and Dave had done his best to dig some clueless Kiwis' non-4x4 out of the sand at the edge of the 'drivable' 90 mile beach we pushed on, only stopping for a 'handle' at New Zealand's northernmost tavern before finding our campsite for the night.
After a bracing cold shower, (fine in 100degrees plus Honduras, not so nice in a rather cool and windy New Zealand!) on our department of conservation camp we journeyed the last few kilometres to the northern most tip of NZ; but instead of the easy option we decided to park Delilah a few miles down the coast and then walk the cliff path to Cape Reinga. Our efforts were rewarded with gorgeous views, the appearance of the sun and the realisation that several months of South American beer has had a detrimental impact on my level of fitness!
Having ticked the 'been to the northern most part of New Zealand' box we turned around and headed south. Not far down the road Dave spotted a sign to the 'largest sand dunes' and we took a small detour to check them out. Te Paki sand dunes did turn out to be rather large and so Dave decided that he needed to climb to the top of them. I followed behind at a slightly slower pace, as Dave took off like a Marathon de Sables competitor. Another amazing landscape to behold and lots of fun running back down the other side; although don't bring up the failed video attempt of Dave's descent, resulting in a lot of huffing and puffing back up to the top for take 2, whoops!
We ended our first week on the North Island with a very chilly night on the Karikari Peninsula, so cold in fact that we needed another trip to The Warehouse (where everyone gets a bargain) to purchase a duvet - Sweet As!
We arrived in Auckland on the 17th of January and picked up our home for the next two months. Delilah, as she is known - christened after Stoke beat Arsenal in the FA Cup, is a lovely little van with just the basics.
We hung around in the city for a couple of days, buying bits'n'pieces from Warehouse and Pak'n'save to aid us on our two month tour of the Land of the Long White Cloud. Auckland is a pleasant enough city and saw a few sights including One Tree Hill (although it has no trees on it at the moment - bit of a sore point).
No Tree Hill - but great views over Auckland without having to climb the Skytower - The southern hemisphere's tallest building...We headed north from the "City of Sails" driving up the west coast. Stopping where ever or when ever we wanted - It is a great feeling to be free to do what we like and not be constrained by bus timetables.
Despite being only a short drive out of Auckland this coast is rugged, wild, mostly deserted and truly fabulous. Our first stop was Karekare, which is one of the most dangerous beaches in New Zealand and where someone out of Pearl Jam nearly drowned while visiting someone out of Crowded House, apparently! No sign of any damp pop stars while we were there though, no sign of anyone actually.
We stopped for a night at Piha, stumbling across the World Junior surfing championships while we were there; these kids were amazing to watch and provided us with an afternoon of entertainment. (Please refer to blog entry from San Juan, Nicaragua for photos of similar surfing ability!)Moving on up the coast we visited a gannet colony at Muriwai, which sparked a frenzy of Galapagos style photograph taking from Temple and I had to drag him away to continue our journey northwards. Our next two campsites were conveniently water side and Dave whipped his rod out at every opportunity, while I relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful, unspoilt, uncrowded surroundings.
Delilah, Kate and Rod!
Dave's first NZ snapper - Greedy little buggers; I was using a huge hook and still only managed to catch the small fry.Having not made it that far north in our first few days we needed to get a few miles under our belts so we ignored the attractions of Dargaville (not hard) and pressed on until we reached Waipoua forest, which is the largest remnant of the once-extensive Kauri forests in this area. We visited the 2 largest kauris left in New Zealand, both were magnificent and incredibly wide and it was easy to understand why in Maori culture these trees are seen as forest gods.
A few miles further north we hit Hokianga harbour and stopped to admire the view before descending to the coast and setting up camp for the night on its shore.
Opted for the car ferry to cross the waters of the bay the next morning and then stopped for a humongous cooked breakfast in a quaint Victorian town called Kohukohu. With our bellies full we motored on and briefly visited the southern most point of 90 mile beach, Ahipara; Dave was very excited as we entered the town and started coming over all Keanu, as this place is the setting for surf film 'Endless Summer'. After the obligatory place name photograph was taken and Dave had done his best to dig some clueless Kiwis' non-4x4 out of the sand at the edge of the 'drivable' 90 mile beach we pushed on, only stopping for a 'handle' at New Zealand's northernmost tavern before finding our campsite for the night.After a bracing cold shower, (fine in 100degrees plus Honduras, not so nice in a rather cool and windy New Zealand!) on our department of conservation camp we journeyed the last few kilometres to the northern most tip of NZ; but instead of the easy option we decided to park Delilah a few miles down the coast and then walk the cliff path to Cape Reinga. Our efforts were rewarded with gorgeous views, the appearance of the sun and the realisation that several months of South American beer has had a detrimental impact on my level of fitness!
Having ticked the 'been to the northern most part of New Zealand' box we turned around and headed south. Not far down the road Dave spotted a sign to the 'largest sand dunes' and we took a small detour to check them out. Te Paki sand dunes did turn out to be rather large and so Dave decided that he needed to climb to the top of them. I followed behind at a slightly slower pace, as Dave took off like a Marathon de Sables competitor. Another amazing landscape to behold and lots of fun running back down the other side; although don't bring up the failed video attempt of Dave's descent, resulting in a lot of huffing and puffing back up to the top for take 2, whoops!
We ended our first week on the North Island with a very chilly night on the Karikari Peninsula, so cold in fact that we needed another trip to The Warehouse (where everyone gets a bargain) to purchase a duvet - Sweet As!
1 comment:
I can't help but smile when reading about NZ...glad to hear you seem to be loving it so much as well. We're impressed with Delilah - looks like she could be quite inconspicuous if she needed to be. Have you done much freedom camping yet? Ahhh.....the memories, Pak'n'Save and the Warehouse - glad to hear you can still get a bargain. Have you spotted Pam's Pies yet - used to be able to pick them up for $1 anywhere the pink sign was showing outside a dairy (newsagents) - steak and cheese all the way!
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