Northland

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Back to Auckland in time for Halloween...... but Auckland is no place to hang around in when the rest of NZ is waiting. I got back on the Magic bus and went up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands, about 3 hours north of Auckland. It's yet another beautiful coastal area, and even more interesting as it is the place where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, so it's a historically significant place to visit. (google if you're interested!!) I stayed 5 nights in the end, and took a day to travel up to the very northern tip of NZ, Cape Reinga - an awesome day out, with amazing scenery (a theme developing here?!). Just outside of Cape Reinga we stopped at some giant sand dunes to go sand boarding - lots of fun - then on the way home drove along 90 Mile Beach, which is actually a state registered highway with a speed limit of 100k, despite it being a beach. Had to dodge the waves a bit as the swell was pretty big the day we were there.
From Paihia we headed west to the other side of Northland, and I stayed a couple of days in a little town called Omapere, at the head of Hokianga harbour. Fantastic beach walks around the harbour head - scenery more dramatic than the Bay of Islands. The highlight though was probably doing a twilight tour of the ancient kauri tree forests with a local Maori guide- Northland is the only part of NZ where there are any of these forests left, and we saw the 2 largest trees, Tane Mahuta (2000 years old) and Te Matua Ngahere (estimated to be 3000-4000 years old) - my photos won't do these justice, they are a truly amazing sight.

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Photos

Cape Maria Van Diemen
Near Cape Reinga, the top of NZ

Sandboarding
that is me, honestly

Hokianga Harbour
view from Arai-Te-Uru reserve