http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Oceania , New Zealand , North Island , Northland en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:25:15 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:25:15 UTC Wednesday 29th OctoberWe had breakfast delivered and at 9.00 am we were picked up by Robin Collins of Harrisons for our trip to Cape Reinga. At Awanui Big River once an ancient sea bed we had a quick look at the huge kauri logs and stumps which have been extracted from local swamps and are thousands of years old. All around this area was flat peat soil country of swamp kauri trees and logs. T http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Cape-Reinga/blog-344676.html Today we took off from Aucland in the Am. We headed North on our way up to the top of the North Island. We headed up the Twin coast Highway and stayed in Dargaville over night. We stopped at Tawharanui Regonal park in the afternoon to do some hiking around the ocean. We saw a group of dolphins and tried to follow then to get a good picture but ended up playing cat and mouse with them winning and u http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-342765.html Deb and I set out to explore Northland for a week before Chris' 21st birthday on Saturday. On our 4th day of roadtripping we made it to Ahipara a surfer's paradise. We woke up and drove to Shipwreck Bay where you can walk along the points during low tide and see sand dunes. It was approaching hightide so worrying that we might get caught being thrown in the water we put our cameras in a plas http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Ahipara/blog-341831.html this week we were up in Northland in the Millenium Kauri Forest Waipoua the Kauri trees were amazing Weather was very changeable this week as we were high up in the mountains it rained pretty much everyday but they were short heavy showers then sun and wind to dry us out again so all was good mon a very interesting day today first we were waiting in the morning for about 1.5hrs as http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-335649.html Day 567 16.10.08We left our lovely spot at Ahipara and began the journey southwards. Tomorrow we'd have to return the car so we wanted to get close to Auckland today whilst stopping at a few spots on the way. We took the long route around the lovely Hokianga harbour area too cheap to pay for the ferry and found a lunch spot on Pakia Hill overlooking the coast and the vast sand dunes at the en http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-335573.html Day 564 13.10.08After an early start and a drive from Thames to Auckland we stopped in at the hire car company to exchange our dirty white not working Toyota for a clean shiny working silver car of exactly the same type. Nice work. Quickly back on the road and we spent most of the day on the road where we ate up the miles with a quick stop at the bizarre Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa unti http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-334520.html RossAfter picking up the van on 1st October we decided to take it for a threeday 1200km test drive north of Auckland an area of the North Island surprisingly known as Northland. After a quick stop at a mall in Milford to replace the aforementioned stolen sunglasses and a second stop in Whangarei for groceries from Woolworths we arrived in Paihia in the Bay of Islands about 5 hours later. http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Cape-Reinga/blog-333778.html here are a few pictures I took traveling around New Zealand. At first I couldnt get my camera off Sepia mode then I realized they turned out nicely. A good feature for bad photogs like myself. Peace. http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Kohukohu/blog-292341.html After leaving The Pickled Parrot and Bay of Islands behind we headed for Cape Reinga which is at the top of the North Island. We decided to take a tour from Kaitia instead of taking Rocky as many cars get swept away in the tides.The bus picked us up in the morning and we went along 90 Mile beach which is a highway. We could see the Hole in The Rock in the distance and hundreds of fisherman http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Cape-Reinga/blog-288251.html 400 words seem to be to short whilst 1300 seems a bit long. So I've decided to keep this in between. After reading through multiple blogs on this website I've come to realize the different styles some writers have. Accounts of every day life self realizations anecdotes tall tales historical accounts past life references and of course epiphanies. I sometimes feel my entries la http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-286363.html A Weekend with the FamiliesThis weekend has been stage two of the moving out of the flat. Friday morning Gary's family arrived at our place at 7am with the trailer we all loaded it up and headed north to my parents place. It was a relaxing weekend Gary played in the Kaitaia squash tournament and we did just a little exploring. Gary's family went to Cape Reinga quad biking along to doubtless ba http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Ahipara/blog-283207.html We officially made it to the most Northern part of New Zealand when we reached the lighthouse at Cape Reinga. This is the point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean and the waves form a cross pattern upon the beach. Here would be a stormwatcher's delight as waves can reach over 8 meters in height.Heading South was bittersweet as it meant we were on the last legs of our journey. We trav http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Cape-Reinga/blog-280293.html Just in time to be behind again we are catching up on our blog With about two weeks remaining until we depart New Zealand we embarked on a journey North of Auckland to the farthest North tip. Our travels took us through one of the larger Northern cities of Whangarei where you can see some photos of below. We stopped at the most photographed waterfalls in New Zealand just minutes from town http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-279754.html We were lucky enough to have a 5 day break from school over Easter so we made the most of it and headed off North of Auckland to explore the top end of the North Island. http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-272407.html After having been home for a couple of weeks how could we just settle back into how we were before we went on this great adventure many of the adventurers have come back with a different perspective on their lives and in many ways have changed their outlook on why they are here one thing is for sure they all agree they would rather be 'out there doing it' than sitting at home on the sofa rea http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Cape-Reinga/blog-271146.html 24 After picking up a campervan we headed up towards Goat Island Marine Reserve stopping off along the way at sights of interest. Goat Island MR was the first marine reserve in NZ and was set up in the 70rsquos. Goat Island is so called because is used to have a flock of goats on it like a lot of island around New Zealand if there was ever a ship wreck the survivors would have something to http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-269187.html On our way down to Auckland we decided to take the long way around and drove down the west coast revisiting the small towns of Oponini and Omapere in the Hokianga region and paying our respects to the 2000year kauri tree Tane Mahuta in the Waipoua forest . During our stop for lunch there was just time for Tim to indulge in a little air guitar and for Em to enjoy a quickbottleofbeerwhilst http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Omapere/blog-268255.html First day in the northland started with our first grey and cloudy day resisted the temptation of sheepworld with its shearing demo's so headed up the coast to wards leigh and the marine reserve of Goat island. Bit too cool and choppy for snorkelling but saw some big fish right in by the rocks. Spent the next hour or so driving along graveled roads near mangawhai and ended up totally lost these http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-267841.html Thursday morning brought blue skies and sunshine and reminded us why we had come to Northland first. Although despite the previous days' it had not once actually been cold the subtropical climate makes even the rain enjoyable We checked out of Little Earth Lodge said goodbye to the people we'd met there including Muttley the dog and headed north for Kahoe.On the way we stopped at Keri Ke http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-267815.html All the Adventurers are back home in their warm beds and in the arms of their lovers.....Here is another instalment from Mike...Hola again for the nearly final time Just a clarification on our side trip to Pisagua you will recall the Boo Radley imitation if you have been paying attention This town in all of its weird decrepidness was the starting point for one Augusto Pinochet 1915 2006 t http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-266855.html TinaHi everyone its Sunday today and you've guessed it another hangover two weeks on the trot however another fab party Anyway more of that later first off I'll start where we left off.Got to Auntie Jan's and Uncle Norm's last monday when we blogged and our plans were to go with them on the Tuesday to there bach pronounced batch and is the kiwi term for a holiday home however Uncle Nor http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Paihia/blog-265918.html Hoorah I have just been appointed an extra Toga though in my case it apparently means Tame Old Git Athome. We have friends who are trying to find there way back from the south island and were having difficulty until we advise them to follow the trail of empty wine bottles which did the trick. I am a bit worried as the girls tell me they have just been practising for my birthday bash on Saturday ni http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-264219.html This morning we woke to a beautiful sunrise over Hokianga Harbour. We had a quiet breakfast headed off to catch the 10am car ferry across the harbour. We visited the beautiful Hokianga Harbour and took some lovely pictures of where the harbour flows out to the sea. We then drove to the Kauri Forest and took a picture of the largest Kauri tree. I had to take a little video of it to get it all i http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Kohukohu/blog-263065.html Leaving the beautiful bay at Rawhiti we had a few potential camping spots to investgate for our next stay. Up and down the winding undulating gravel road we went again with Glynn looking worse today than he did yesterday. After about 30 minutes we came to our first campsite candidate at Helena Bay but a quick inspection showed us a small brown beach with choppy seas and no obvious place to pit http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-259340.html 19th January 2008We thought we would add a few of our favourite wedding photos to the blog. As you can probably tell from the pictures we had a totally awesome day and couldn't have wished for any part of it being better http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-255417.html In my last blog I said I was off to a place called Kerikeri en route to St Francis farm in a place I thought was called Warangeri. Well I got to Kerikeri OK. A great place. Spent two idyllic days there camping writing and mooching. Realised when I got there though that I should have been in Kawakawa the place to get the bus to Whirinaki not Warangeri where the farm is. Also realised the wond http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-251682.html Monday 3rdAnother 630am start bus arrives 710. Today we have Jack and it's soon clear that he really knows his stuff as he drives us through an area which has plenty of history along with natural sites. Lots of Norfolk pines which indicate an area settled by missionaries the top forms a perfect cross some of the oldest buildings and plenty of kiwifruitavacado plantations. A short walk into http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Cape-Reinga/blog-251473.html Saturday 1st MarchUp in time to get out to the Post Shop again and once again it's raining. Peter says that the dive boats aren't out today as it's too rough and when I get picked up by the Magic Bus apparently all the boat trips today have been cancelled at Paihia too there's a gale blowing in We're not sure what that means for my overnight boat cruise Rock the Boat tonight they haven't http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Paihia/blog-251472.html Friday 22nd Feb Day 31Departed La Paz for NZ via Chile.Saturday 23rd Feb Day 32Came and went in a flash crossed the international date lineSunday 24th Feb Day 33Arrive Auckland.Monday 25th Feb Day 34 to Friday 29th Feb Day 38 On a 5 Day surfing tour of northland the area north of Auckland with New Zealand surf tours. The surf was really good at ninety mile beach which was the best b http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/Ahipara/blog-251407.html