Far North

Saturday 10^th November.

God, it feels good to be mobile. We can go anywhere, do anything. But first we need to go and pick up a mattress for the back of our van. It’s actually a lot comfier than it sounds. We get lost looking for highway 1 and have a bit of lunch in Mairangi Bay.

We eventually find highway 1 and head North, but with the option of a toll road, or the Coastal scenic route, we took the latter, obviously. We stopped for a bit just outside Orewa...

and then again around Leigh/Pakiri

Up to Whangarei to get some supplies, then head back down to a camping ground we passed called Raukaka. I should explain the term for people like us who sleep in the back of cars/vans and usually do it perhaps where they shouldn’t be doing it. It’s called: ‘Tramping’. There are also loads of people in their winibagos, watching their sky TV whilst roasting a chicken. This is: Glamping. Anything in between is just regular camping. Well, we were going to ‘tramp it’, but there were some shady looking people hanging around the public toilets, so we went 30 seconds down the road to a proper campsite with cold showers, a long-drop toilet and everything. We went for a walk along the beach and then turned in.  

Sunday 11^th November.

An early awakening for me as our make-shift curtains had failed and it was pretty bright in the back of the van. We take our breakfast of black coffee and pain o chocolates to the beach. It was completely deserted for the whole time we were there. That’s one of the things I’ve been finding hard getting used to. You’re doing something you think everyone should be doing, in a place where everyone should be. But there isn’t. You’re the only people there. On occasion it’s made us wonder if we’re even in the right place.

A hot shower at the visitor’s centre, then we head into Whangarei forest to check out some trees and a waterfall.

We decide to hoof it North. We took a scenic coastal route to KeriKeri. A weird Indian curry pizza in a Taipa. Up to Matai bay. We stopped there for a little bit, but we’re keen on getting to the top now.

Heading up to cape, the whole tone of the place changes. There really are no shops, petrol stations or mobile signal for the last 40-50 miles. I should have filled up when I could. Luckily there was a ‘last stop’ petrol station where you pay over the odds for everything. But…lesson learnt and no harm done. We finally reach the top where we’ll camp for the night. The rain is coming down now, but we’re getting much more organised at this camping business and the rain on the top of the car is really nice when you’re inside and cosy in bed.

Monday 12^th November.

Morning view:

We head back up to the cape as we didn't really have a good look around the day before.

We started our way back down. We climbed the giant sand-dunes of Te Paki

A quick stop for lunch in Kaitaia then carried on down to Kohukohu where we would catch the ferry to Rawene. We got some attitude from some local chickens whilst we were waiting for the boat to arrive.

Driving round the coast we come across Omapere, which has to be one of the biggest highlights for me so far. It was breath-taking.

Looking for a place to camp, we overshot the Waipaua forrest, but we found a little hill-billy campsite a couple of miles down the road. It has to be the clearest night sky I’ve ever seen, so I decided to do try some long exposure photography. Initially frustrated that the stars were always out of focus, only now as I’m putting this together that I realise that the blurring effect is actually star trailing. It’s where the single points of light form a line as the Earth spins and we hurtle through our galaxy. Pretty cool eh?

Tuesday 13^th

Start the day by taking a quick walk through the Kauri trees. It's hard to give a sense of scale in this photo, but trust me. This is one big-ass tree.

 We consult the map and the guide book and conclude that there’s nothing more we really want to see North of Auckland, so today is going to be heavy on the driving. We stop ever couple of hours, but we keep pressing on to our destination of Thames. On the way, we drive through one of the heaviest thunder storms I’ve ever seen and as our altitude increases a little, the road is covered by ice, snow or hail. Tentatively we reach Thames, but tonight is one night you don’t want to be tramping, so we splurge on a comfy double room at the Sunkist hostel. An opportunity for us to recharge batteries literally and metaphorically.