Day 159 New Zealand, Waipoua Forest.

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Hello Bloggers,



We woke up with the Asians blow-drying hair again, it wasn’t too early though. They said they were off to Cape Reinga by rented car, so we let them get in the shower and use the kitchen before we got out of bed.



We had booked the car for another day too as we want to see Waipoua forest to see giant Kauri trees. So after cheese on toast for breakfast we set off on the 1h40min drive across to the west coast.



The drive was easy, only a couple of roads to navigate, average speed was about 100km, and we arrived. Before we did however, we pulled over a few times to admire the incredible landscape of northern NZ the view point over North Head and Omapere-Opononi were amazing!! (Hopefully the photos will do a little justice).



We got to the forest, it’s well marked and you can walk different trails to see the top 5, trails ranged from 1 minute to 1hr+. The only disappointing thing is that you can’t get photos next to the trees to show the scale of how big they are. Their roots are shallow so will get damaged if tourists walk on them. They are around 50 meters tall and trunks over 5 meters in diameter!! Tane Mahuta “The lord of the forest” was massive!!!



We stopped for lunch on the way back in a café in Omapere, where Neil had a chicken and mushroom pie and I had a sweet potato jacket with bacon and a salmon and green salad. It was delicious!!



We arrived back to the hostel about 14.30pm, we had a chill out and then got the tennis rackets from reception (for free) to have a few sets before tea time…living the dream!! (And I won of course!!)



We chilled all evening in our kitchenette dorm, making tea, chatting to Pip and Dave and watching the film ‘Beyond the pines’.



That’s all for now.



Love V&N X

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