Activity Summary
Thursday 1st December - Day 91 (continued)
Whangarei falls & river forest walk
First pitch up of the big boy tent
Friday 2nd December - Day 92
Busby heads coastal walk
Lunch on Ocean Beach
Quarry gardens
Saturday 3rd December - Day 93
Waitangi Treaty Grounds
Paihia
Sunday 4th December - Day 94
Bay of Islands boat tour
Russell (view)
Motuarohia Island (viewpoint walk)
Moturoa island (view)
Waewaetorea island (snorkelling, SUP, beach chill and sea urchin taster session)
Opua Forest Paihia Lookout Track
Haruru falls
Monday 5th December - Day 95
Rainbow falls
Cable bay beach lunch
90 mile beach (view only)
Te Paki sand dunes and sand boarding
Cape Reinga
Fish & chips in Mangonui (Hoki & Warehou)
Tuesday 6th December - Day 96
Rawene Mangrove Boardwalk
Arai te Uru Nature Reserve
Tane Mahuta - largest Kauri tree
Te Matua Ngahere - oldest Kauri tree
Big day of driving down to Hamilton
Wednesday 7th December - Day 97
Hobbiton movie set tour
Karangahake gorge
Drive to Coromandel
Summary
Whangarei
A nice stop off up the coast and some very nice walks. Helped that the weather was great however.
Bay of Islands / Paihia
Beautiful area with plenty to do. Island boat touring, waterfalls and history.
Cape Reinga
The drive up from Paihia was long but well worth it. The views were great and some interesting activities to do in dune walking, sand boarding and coastal walking.
West Northland
Seemed to be largely overlooked on guides but was one of Luke’s favourite places. The drive and walks through the Kauri forest were amazing plus a couple of cool stop offs along the way.
Accommodation
Whangarei - Top10
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £12
Great campsite / holiday park to start off our trip. Had a TV room we could retire to and the vibe around the place was chill with good facilities.
Paihia - Bay of Islands Holiday Park
Number of nights - 3
Price per night per person - £10
Not great pitches available for a tent (lopsided) and the lack of drinkable water was a pain. Could hide away in a TV/games room but was not overly comfortable. Wouldn’t recommend.
Diary
[Continued from Auckland]
As we weren’t able to check in to the Top10 Whangarei campsite until 2pm we stopped off along the road at a supermarket and had lunch and a walk at Whangarei Falls for our first stop of the wonderful NZ nature and views we had heard about. It did not disappoint as the sun was shining and we were absolutely buzzing. A great waterfall, a wonderful river and forest walk with our very first experience of Kauri trees (require to clean shoes in areas in order to prevent Kauri dieback, the fungus that is killing all the native Kauri trees).
Now able to check in, we arrived at the Top10 campsite, one of the more expensive options around the country and was chosen as a way to introduce us to camping life. As we would find out on the road that not all Top10 sites are very good but this one was absolutely wonderful with a TV room that was basically a private room for us, a great kitchen and a lovely campground.
It took us a fair while to get the monster tent we had up given it was the first attempt but the process was not overly complicated and going forward over the next 3 months we both had clearly defined roles in its erection (Nicola on poles, giggidy, and Luke pegging, giggidy).
With a decent kitchen we were able to cook in peace and it allowed Luke to begin the road in rediscovering his cooking passion after months of eating out for every meal. Although the kitchen utensils we bought were limited in their function so he would have to reign in his desires to roast pork joints and whip up some special Luke fried chicken (LFC is magic FYI).
We retired to our TV room for the evening, mostly alone until a dude came in to game the evening away. It was a bit odd but he didn't bother us as we watched our marvel film.
The day plan was to drive out for some local walking and exploration. The sun was beaming and this made the drive over Whangarei heads as entertaining as if walking around. We stopped off along the way a couple of times just to take in the joys of real NZ.
The coastal walk we settled on was the Busby heads coastal walk, a clear trodden path (unlike the walking routes of SE Asia) that introduced us to the NZ coast, some of the wildlife and the great NZ Christmas tree in half bloom. Basically everywhere we looked we were taken aback by the beauty.
Nearby we opted to have an incredibly scenic lunch on Ocean Beach. We made friends with a local seagull who was probably the most patient gull we have ever met. Those in the UK would have demolished our food and fingers given half a chance whereas these guys are not aggressive at all. We went for a very shallow waddle in the freezing water before taking off back to Chops.
On the way back was a converted quarry into a stunning garden so we grabbed a coffee for Luke and had a slow walk around. We tried completing the longer loop up the cliff and around but this seemed to be closed off so panicked and turned around. The lady at the front desk was completely unaware of this when we shared this nugget of information we wished she had told us before we attempted it.
As we are in wine country Luke had decided to treat himself to various bottles of wine throughout the trip as, in his mind, needs to drink copious amounts of wine in order to really appreciate the country. So a random bottle from the supermarket kept him occupied for a few days (wasn’t anything special however).
Standard evening event - TV and chill but this time mixed in with a bit of pac-man.
The sun continued to shine wonderfully in the morning (and the rest of the day). We had the added excitement of having to pack up the tent and all our gear before setting off for the day but given the amazing weather, Luke had a pretty easy time drying out what parts of the tent that had any moisture.
This camping thing was starting to feel a little too easy.
We set off over to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds for the day, the place of the infamously controversial founding document that was signed by the local Maori tribe leaders and the British, interestingly one in Maori and one in English. Someone did a pretty poor job of translating however and the two parties believed to sign completely different documents. We had a guided tour that took us a bit about the local Maori culture, how the Maori and European settlers had arrived and ending with the events surrounding the signing of the treaty. The tour guide was incredibly engaging and the whole tour walking around the grounds and historical sites was good fun. One of the best parts was the entrance to the grounds which was a carved wooden lady with her legs spread symbolising no harm would come. The story itself centred around her being taken hostage and the only people that would be spared from the marauding male would be those that had come from between her legs. So she saved her village by making them walk underneath them, hence the very interesting carving and tradition.
At the end of the guided tour we watched a Maori performance that showcased local etiquette, various weaponry dance and music.
Once down with our tour and performance we had some packed lunch on the treaty grounds and went to the nearby town of Paihia for a walk around and booked a boat tour for the following day.
We finished our day reasonably early in order to get to our next campsite near Paihia. We had opted to go for one a fair amount cheaper than our first luxury experience at a Top10 but in driving over there, we managed to talk ourselves out of this when we passed a holiday park that appeared not overly expensive. So we changed our plan at the very last minute and turned into the Bay of Islands holiday park. Turns out this wasn’t overly well thought out as they didn’t have readily available drinking water (only bottles at the desk) and the campsite facilities were nowhere near as nice as the previous location.
We were already a bit glum when setting up the tent and to make matters worse we started getting bitten by a combination of mozzies and midges. Fortunately we didn't have any issue over the next 3 days however and were able to retreat to the comfort of the TV room. The kitchen however sucked and the murky pipe water was less than appealing.
After cooking and chilling in the TV room we retreated to our tent.
We had booked a Bay of Islands boat tour so, deciding we didn’t want to pay for parking in Paihia, we parked a little outside of the tiny main area of the town and walked in. A local college bus driver was parked up on the road just ahead and thought it was hilarious to smash his horn at us while we walked by - scared poor Luke half to death and in turning and giving some of his finest “you’re an absolute c***” death glare riled the cretin of a man to proclaim it was hilarious and we needed to stop taking things too seriously. He should have met Luke when he was still working - that’s taking things too seriously. We doubt Luke’s seething silence will educate the pleb enough to stop being such a dickhead to passers by and generally just disturbing all the locals early in the morning.
We met the rest of the tour group who were a mix of European travellers, all of which were girls. It was however a great group of people and the two tour guides Bluebell (interesting name) and Nick were a breath of fresh air after the many terrible SE Asia tour guides. The first thing they mentioned was a safety briefing and where the life jackets were - we almost forgot this was standard practice.
The boat ride took us first over to Russell to talk through some history and out over to our first stop on Motuarohia Island. The day again was beautifully sunny and made the views out of the boat and into the sea as good as they could be. We managed to spot a number of little blue penguins out at sea fishing and had a few stops whenever someone cried wolf.
At Motuarohia Island we disembarked off the back of the boat which was smart enough to have an extendable platform, unlike the vessels skirting around Bali, so with dry feet we walked up the fairly small viewpoint walk but with great panoramic views of the islands nearby.
We descended down to the beach to have some coffee & tea before carrying on on the boat trip. We stopped by Moturoa island which had amazing NZ christmas trees along the coast and nesting wildlife that we had never seen before.
Our final land stop was Waewaetorea island where we had some time to get some of the beach toys out and about from the boat. We first went snorkelling which was entertaining for a little while before the freezing waters became too much and we gave up with the foggy masks. In terms of wildlife there wasn’t a great deal but the cold water kelp around the rocks was interesting. Nicola showcased her stand up paddle board skills while Luke demonstrated his lack of by face planting the board in front of the rest of the tour group. Stay classy San Diego.
A surprise event was a fresh sea urchin taster session that Nick organised. He had gone out snorkelling with a big ol rock collecting and smashing invasive sea urchins that eat the kelp, currently more and more uncontrolled due to overfishing of red snapper. His demonstration talked through the sea urchin, how to open it and then gave us all some of the fresh uni that is so prized in Japanese sushi cuisine.
After an afternoon of fun we shepherded back onto the boat and then cruised the scenic bay back to Paihia harbour. Not once did Nicola have any problems with seasickness - a taste of the goodlife. Had any of the group we were with actually staying in Paihia we would have arranged drinks with them but every single one had opted to make the long journey back to Auckland that afternoon / evening as all were on ridiculously tight timelines vs our easy coast round in 3 months vibe.
Still fairly early in the day we chose to have a walk on the Opua Forest Paihia Lookout Track. It's a fairly simple walk up to a lookout over Paihia and the view really didn’t amount to much but got talking to a couple who seemed to be in their mid 50’s and had been sailing around the pacific just the two of them. Nicola was half salivating, half terrified of the amazing trip these guys were doing. They were clearly rich AF but it certainly made for a very interesting conversation, especially given Adam’s (Luke’s brother) career decision to whore himself out to these elite people.
On our way back to the campsite we stopped by Haruru falls for 5 minutes which again was amazing.
Food, TV room and bed.
We were up and off fairly early as the plan was to drive over to Cape Reinga and the north Western part of Northland with various stops along the way. Door to door it is a 3.5hr drive so would be a pretty big day but we decided that we could do everything we wanted to in a day trip rather than pack up the tent and change location.
A short drive away from our campsite was another waterfall called Rainbow falls, some would say aptly named from the formed rainbow in good weather. Luke had tried to watch the England Senegal game in the morning but a combination of poor WIFI then all chance of this buffering being completely KO’d from a scheduled power cut. So he listened to this on BBC radio and ruined the peaceful vibes for the various walkers - apologies.
It was a fair drive before we stopped at Cable bay beach briefly so Nicola could chow down on a sausage sandwich and then close to the start of the 90 mile beach for Luke’s. The warning signs at the 90 mile beach were pretty amusing, as the beach is a road that clearly many a foolish traveller had tried to navigate and gotten either stuck in the sand or nailed by the tide. We knew Chops didn't have it in him so it was the road well trodden for us. Also the 90 mile beach is actually 88km or 55 miles. What a lie.
The coolest event of the day planned was sandboarding some monster dunes at Te Paki. Nicola hadn’t done this before so was a little nervous while Luke had done this in Australia and loved it, especially watching other people absolutely wipe out but this was unlikely to happen to Nicola. As we arrived to rent some boards from the local business there we were slightly delayed from a mega rant from the owner, whose husband had run off up the dunes to shout at a local tour operator who had rocked up with a bus load of people - he didn’t look like the kind of guy you wanted to mess with. Turns out there was a constant battle between tour operators and the local Maori who maintain the dunes about rights and access. It was an interesting insight into the local politics prior to our ride but we were happy we appeared to be doing the right thing and renting boards locally.
The weather had turned slightly at this point and there was a very real threat of rain as we trekked up the sand dunes to find a spot to surf down. Eventually we found a place that Nicola was comfortable with and Luke could get a bigger run so after an hour or two of walking up and surfing down the dunes (with a sand angel thrown in) we made our way down. By the end Nicola was brimming with confidence when she realised she could use her legs to slow down.
The last stop on our tour was the Cape Reinga lighthouse. We had a short walk around and just sat watching the sea and the world go by with nothing but the sound of nature.
We drove almost straight back to the campsite, only stopping to switch over as drivers and grab our first taste of NZ fish & chips in Mangonui. They had run out of pretty much all fish however so had little option but to choose the Hoki & Warehou. Would recommend getting the Hoki again (much like cod) but the warehou was very dry and almost like chicken so not very appealing (although not terrible).
Having travelled up the East coast and around the North and NW part of Northland, the last bit left to complete was the Western side before heading off to Hamilton.
We were a little strapped for time in this instance as we understood we needed to be in Hamilton by early evening and also needed to head to Torpedo7 in Auckland to get Luke’s ridiculous refund in person so we ended up rushing and skipping a few things along the way, only to find out there was no drama in a late check in. Lesson learned from our end, but we didn't miss too much over the day.
Our first tour stop was the Rawene mangrove boardwalk close to the Hokianga harbour, a short loop around part of a mangrove forest that was on the road to recovery post British destruction. Worth a visit and was interesting to compare to the mangroves in Nusa Lembongan in Indonesia.
We continued our drive around the West side of Northland and over to the Arai te Uru Nature Reserve for a short walk and the Pakia hill lookout which showed some pretty serious sea swirl.
On our way down to Hamilton was probably some of the most entertaining driving on the North Island (as Luke writes this on the ferry down South). The roads were winding, steep and quiet while being absolutely surrounded by tree covered landscapes in every direction you looked. The main attractions in this area are the numerous Kauri forest walks and especially the giant Kauri trees.
The first tree we stopped at was Tane Mahuta, the largest Kauri tree in New Zealand standing at 51.5m and a trunk girth of 13.8m. At roughly 2,000 years old it was seriously impressive.
The next tree we visited was called Te Matua Ngahere and was the oldest Kauri tree, estimated to be 3,000 years old. It was shorter than Tane Mahuta but was a girthy boy at 16.41m. This tree had a very interesting walk through a Kauri forest which was just all round great fun to be surrounded by exquisite greenery and nature. The guy at the boot cleaning station (to remove any potential Kauri dieback fungus) was just a nice and informative dude so had an interesting chat before running off worried that we had cocked up our timings.
Once eventually in Auckland, Luke torpedoed into Torpedo7, took their money, and then ran to the car to meet Nicola. Efficient work on his part.
We ended up arriving in Hamilton pretty early but we had already called ahead for late check in so it would have resulted in zero problems. We opted for a hostel for the night given the lengthy drive and to avoid the pain of a tent set up and collapse in the space of 12 hours. We dragged the needed items into our hostel from the car, cooked a very basic meal and settled into our shared bed for the first time in god knows how long. Turns out Nicola still occupies all the space and duvet (which was incredibly small).
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