3 days in the far NORTH

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We started in the south and we are moving north, and it's the last regios of NZ: Northland. North of Auckland, in a long and narrow land, a region rich in towns, forests of the huge Kauri trees, sand dunes (some of real white sand), bays with many islands (did you know? to be called an island it needs to have some vegetation. Otherwise it’s just a rock), and the northernmost point of the North Island. It’s the other side of the visit to Southland and the Catlins, about 7 weeks ago. If the Catlins were the end of NZ road atlas, now we mead to page 1 in the book…
On Wednesday we spent half day in Auckland, mainly shopping souvenirs at Victoria market, and stayed with a HIT family just north of Auckland. This was the first family I really disliked. The husband was a real racist against white people. He was from Singapore, born to an Indian family. He immediately liked Erez for his skin color. He was probably that he was there with a white like me… He had such racist statements that I couldn’t stand, but also other than that he was so awful to talk to that I was glad I had other plans: my last chocolate cake :-)
On Thursday we drove through the west side of the peninsula, through Kauri forest. It’s a huge and old tree (most of them are several hundreds years old). In the past the people used them and the forests were almost extinct but now they are protected. Look how small I am next to one of these giants (but I hear that compared to tress in Australia these are nothing!). Thursday night we stayed in our LAST hit family - a widower in Kaitaia town, a very nice ex-Dutch woman. As much as we enjoyed the HITs, it’s nice to know we can go out at our last 2 nights and be nice to no-one (except to one another).
On Friday we took a tour to 90 niles beach and Cape Reinga that is almost the northernmost point. You take a tour because it’s fun to go on the beach itself but it’s really not recommended to do with a regular car. The bus went on the sand and then up a stream… it was nice plus the views were, as always, beautiful. Cape Rienga is where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman sea meet, and you can actually see the waves in 2 different directions!
From there we drove to Pahia - the bay of islands, which is exactly what the name says - bay with more than 140 islands inside. A cruise is a must but for people with a short time like us there are jet boat rides to the main attraction - the hole in the rock. It was a real summary of NZ - some adrenalin in this very high speed boat (75 kmh!), the pass through the waves in the hole, but also nature in its beauty. Fantastic!

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Photos

Auckland Panorama
From after the bridge

Huge Kaori tree
Look at small me at the bottom

Sometimes I work hard here
Carrying this log wasn't easy!!

90 miles beach
A bus ride on the beach!

Me and the oceans meet
behind me is the meeting place of the Pacific ocean and Tasman sea. When it's stormy the waves show the collision but we visited in a sunny calm beautiful day

Yet another sunset
Teh clouds here are simply beautiful!

Jet boat to the "Hole in the rock"
In bay of Islands