Northwards from Auckland

This morning was our last in Auckland and after a quick coffee, it was time to load up the car and head north. I think that it is a good job that we opted for a station wagon sized car as, with all the camping equipment that we have hired with the vehicle, it would have been difficult to squeeze everything in to a smaller sized one! With our ´sat-nav´ on, we gingerly made our way out into rush our traffic, for Dani, driving on the UK side of the road for the first time. After a few wrong turns, we made it out of the city, over the bridge heading north with one last backwards glance at the impressive skyline we were leaving behind.

The road was a typical highway, with the drive taking us through the north shore suburbs, before we turned off westwards to take the ´scenic´route. As we drove, the scenery gradually changed to one of gentle rolling, grass covered hillsides, with small clusters of trees huddled closely together. As we carried on though, the view became wider and far more impressive. Cattle farming seems to be the main use of the countryside here, with cows being visible pretty much everywhere!

I think, coming from such a baron island as Lanzarote, any sort of greenery is nice, but here, the views are amazing. Gentle slopping hills close to the road, with grazing cattle, backed by conifer treed covered mountains behind. And it is amazing because this is the scene as far as you can see, right to the horizon where tree covered mountains start appearing with grass covered valleys between. The road took us through numerous small villages, all with small timber framed bungalows and neat gardens. As we headed northwards, the road started to run parallel with an estuary which meets the large Kaipara Harbour. As this road ended, we found ourselves in the small town of Dargaville, a one street town, housing the usual hardware store, grocery shop, second hand clothes shop and an array of other outlets. Here we stocked up on a few food items before continuing. We were looking to find a picnic spot from here and we continued a mountainous drive through a tree covered canopy towards the Waipoua Forest.

I must say, at this time, as we were climbing upwards, you could see nothing on either side of the car apart from trees. We initially thought that, after following signs uphill to a lookout point, we had found our perfect picnic spot, only to find that as soon as Dani opened his sandwich, we were surrounded by a swarm of wasps! So, after a few quick photos, we headed back down to the main road! The views were amazing! Closer hillsides and further mountains covered in dense forests and grassland.

Ten minutes later we reached Tane Mahuta (Giant Kauri Tree) which is a famous tree here in the area. We settled on a picnic bench enjoying the complete silence, well apart from the sound of a generator used by the resident caravan selling hotdogs and coffees etc, so after a quick sandwich munch (without wasps) we ambled into the forest to take a look at this historic tree. The path took us through a heavy canopy of trees with small shrubs and forest plants on either side. There was a smell of damp earth and leaves as it seems that the forest floor here receives little light. The wooden paved path soon opened up however, to reveal the huge bulk of ´Tane Mahuta´.

Quick Trivia – The treasured forest of Waipoura and the garden of Tane Mahuta, homes New Zealand´s largest know living kauri tree. This tree reaches more than 50 metres in height, and has a trunk girth of over 16 metres, it sprang from a seed approximatley 1500 years ago. Most of Northlands ancient forest cover has been lost to fire and sawing, with the area plundered for the precious timber or cleared for farmland.

From here we continued through the tree lined mountainous road until we reached an amazing viewpoint. So, here we decided to stop to get some photos and for me to try and take some rubbish to the bin. Unbeknown to me however, there was a resident group of chickens that seemed to hold the car park to ransom if anyone tried to near the bin incase they had something that they could eat! So, after being chased back to the car by these spikey toed birds (I had to laugh Ms Roe!!!), I decided to wait a bit until Dani had taken some shots The view is the start of Hokianga Harbour where you can see a small, calm bay with a beach on one side flanked by beach houses. The facing shore is a sandy hillside scattered with scrub like plants which gradually, along the shoreline, turns into hillsides covered with grass and at their peaks lush forests. Closer to the road there were even pink coloured papayas grass.

After distracting ´spikey toed chickens´with an apple core, we continued driving downwards towards the village of Omapere before heading inland, and once again, upwards. The countryside was one of farmland, with timber barns and large silos surrounded by low pasture, and more cows Again, we drove upwards through forest lined roads which at that time of day, in the evening sunlight, was a multitude of different shades of green, such a rare sight for us islanders! As the sun began to set, we decided that it was probably time to start looking for some overnight accommodation.

So, we have now made it to our rest stop this evening the ´Kauri Lodge Motel´situated just outside the town of Kaitaia. This town marks the start of ´Ninety Mile Beach´which runs almost to the northern most tip of the north island on its west coast. Tomorrow, we are aiming to head towards Te Rerengawairua (Cape Reinga) lighthouse situated on the very north shore of the north island……