Whangarie to Ahipara via. Kauri Forest

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So... i was on the road again. I was slightly hung over which didn't help... it seemed like every last night i had somewhere people would want to go drinking and I have found myself only being hung over on my travel days which isn't too fun. My plan was to hitch hike up to the Kauri forests where there are these crazy old awsome trees and camp out around there for a few days until they had space for me on my next farm. It was a pretty shit day which didn't help the fact that i was sad to be leaving the cozy farm and slightly hung over. So on arriving in Whangarie i decided that a bus would be a better option then hitching through the rain. Toni dropped me off at the grocery store so i could stock up on some food now that i was going to be supporting myself... I then stopped at an internet caffe to get in touch with the next farm i was gonig to and let my mums know what i was up to. I bought some gas for my stove and headed for the bus depot which was also a travel agency.
I learned a good lesson at the travel agancy which is: never trust a travel agency. I went in there and asked them what buses they had going up to the kauri forests. This bitch told me that the only way to even get into the forest was to pay like a 100 bucks and get on one of those stupid tour buses! Not my cup of tea... Bumbed out because i thought my whole plan for the next few days. COnfused about what to do with myself I wondered into a nice looking cafe right next door to the travel agency... The only one there was the owner/ barista and after ordering a nice hot americano I started chatting to him. He was a real nice guy and it just so happened to be his 40th Bday! i told him a littl ebit of my story and about how i really wanted to go see the Kauri forest but didn't want to get on any effing tour bus. He told me that the lady at the tour guide was just full of shit and trying to sell me something and that not only were the forests open to the public but there was a bus that stopped right in front of his shop that took me to Dargaville which got me pretty close to the forest! so yeah.... that lady was full of shit! I had like 4 hours to kill until the bus came so i sat in the cafe for a hilw longer and hung out with the barista as he and his friends drank a bunch of chorona's with home grown limes. He closed shop early so i was forced to sit out in the rain for some time but i didn't mind, atleast i had some sort of plan!
On the bus i meet this other german lad my age who was doing a working holiday as well. We had good coversatoin all though the hour bus ride but we constantly being interuppted by all these younger high school girls who were very curious with me being form the Stats and my accent (or just flirint with me...) On arriving to daraville the sun was already getting pretty low and i still had a pretty bad headache from the night before so i decided to find a backpacker and spend the night.
Dargaville is probably the smallest nothing town i have stayed the night so far but it also had the best backpacker!! It was an old elementary school turned into hostel so all the rooms still had the old chalk boards in them that had been covered in graffiti from all the people coming through. Not only did it have a cool lay out but the facilties were nice and... most importantly, so were the people. I thought i would be the only one spending the night in such a little town but i was mistaken. There were proabbly 8 people there all just stopping through, coming from somewhere cool and heading of to somewhere else the next morning and most of them were travelling solo. With this came lots of different interesting background and stories form all over the world! I meet a Kiwi kid my age named Nick who had been travelling by push bike through out the country but then had it stolen a couple days before and started his journey on foot. We hit it off imediatly and after making a nice dinner for ourselves we decided to go out into "town" to get a beer. The only place was a chinese restraunt that was closing in 5 minutes... they let us stay for one beer and then we got a 6 pack and headed back to the hostel. I was actaully surprised how the only few people we saw out on the streets... all were trying to convince us to take a "walk" down sketchy dark allies. I guess there are people who kind of suck no matter where you go! even New Zealand...
I also meet this German girl named Lena (there are lots of germans on holiday in NZ) she was very nice. We talked for a little while and i told her i was heading up north to see the kauri forests and it turned out that she was going to see the moster trees as well so she offered to give me a ride up there.
After a good nights sleep and s littl ebreakfast of cheese and jam on a bagel (thanks julie for showing me that) I packed up my stuff and head out with Lena on our jouney north.
The scenery everywhere has been amazing and I hear it is even more so in the south Island which I am very much looking forward to. The infrastructure is very well developed but NZ is very hilly so the roads do alot of twisting and turning wherever you go. I have found myself getting a little car sick here and there for the first time in my life because the roads are just so crazy!
We arrive at the forest at right around noon and went on all the short trecks they had of the main highway to the biggest of the trees. They were monstrous! Lena and I both felt this wierd feeling when being inthe presence of them. They are just so old and so huge that you can almost feel their history and power!
I was planning on camping out around there but the only campsite was a very serviced one which means lots of big RVs and tourists... I had seen what i was there to see and decided to keep on heading north with lena instead of hanging around. We both had no idea of where we were going to spend the night or where to go... we just kept on driving! we stopped in a small town for coffee and some food and took a look at the map to see if there was anywhere that drew our attention. I saw this little town on the map named Ahipara that was on the very begining of NZ's infamous 90 mile beach (that is really just 90 km.. not miles) and for no good reason... decided that it would be a good destination. This was another thing wher ei just kind of followed my intict and was very glad where i ended up. Ahipara isn't to far from Kiatia but when we arrived there I was still hitch away... I went to another grocery store to buy some more groceries because i didn't know what would be out there or how long i would stay and my debit card just wasn't working!!! i paid with cash and then went to an atm machine to check my balance to make sure nothing funky was going on and.... the effing ATM machine ate my card! Luckily i was prepared for a situation liek this with my "emrgency wad" i had a couple hundred bucks in cash that i hid at the bottom of my pack in case something happened. Although it was still very frusterating!! even now almost a week later I am still stuck running out of cash with no debit card... but regardless the show must go on! I said farewell to Lena, and starting walking down the road which pointed to Ahipara with my thumb stuck out!
I was walking for maybe a mile and the sun was starting to set. Right as i was about to give up and find a spot in the woods to camp for the night someone picked me up... but man did it work out! Leon Langerak pulled on over and when he opened the door he had TV on the Radio (one of my favorite bands ever) blasting through his speakers. The second i heard that all my worries, frusteration and anxiety melted away. To this day i still think it was a sign... and on i went to Aihpara!!

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Photos

Me in front of the mother tree.
This was the biggest of the trees. Even with my wides lens there was no getting it all in the frame...