Blogs from Tutukaka, Whangarei, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

For our last two weeks of the trip we have based ourselves in Whangarei (pronounced Fong-gar-ay), which is about 100 miles N of Auckland and is the principal town of the Northland Peninsula. For the first few days we just explored the area around Whangarei harbour - which is about 14 miles long - and is indented with dozens of coves and pristine beaches. The whole of the eastern side of Northland is a paradise for anyone into water-based activities; be it sailing, fishing, kayaking or snorkelling. We spent an afternoon on a dolphin-watching trip from the Bay of Islands town of Paihia: after cruising thro' the islands for a couple of hours the skipper was getting anxious as there were no dolphins to be seen; perhaps they had had enough of tourists for the day. ... read more

Auckland We arrived in Auckland after a smooth three hour flight from Fiji. When I stepped off the plane it was tough to not say Bula to people!! We decided to check out Auckland for two days and we had a very rough plan to book a camper somewhere before then. So after hopping onto the bus and checking into the YHA hostel we went on a jaunt down the main road in Auckland, Queen St. It was clear that our overall experience here in New Zealand was going to be so different than our previous few months. For one, walking down the street we were not being stared at, that there were fully functioning traffic lights and people followed them and that really the way of life here is the same as home. This means ... read more

This morning we went to Kowhaiwera Bay to have morning tea and a paddle. We met some strange people there! here are some photos............. read more

On another of our off-day we decided to tour more of Northland again. This time we chose to head towards east side towards Ngunguru (means "rumbling tides in Maori language) and Tutukaka area. These are two coastal towns with plenty of lovely, picturesque beaches. Before we departed, we made some American styled pancakes for breakfast. We made pit stops at Ngunguru Bay, Whangaumu Bay, Matapouri Bay, Whale Bay and did a very short hike through the grasslands and beach to the Tutukaka Lighthouse in the Tutukaka Recreational Reserve. The best bay was Matapouri Bay, in which we stopped to have a picnic of our homemade fish sandwich. I was the driver for most of this trip. ... read more