Advertisement
Published: November 18th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Our road trip around NZ would soon be ending, but before we sold our wheels in Auckland, we had one final road to tear up - the twin coastal explorer route in the Northland where we travelled north bound via the East coast and looped back down on the western highway.
From the advice of travellers who've walked these shores before - Carolyn, Paul and Mamma and Pappa Ramsey, we knew that this area, particularly the Bay of Islands, was a highlight of NZ. Being the northern most region of the North Island, much of the vegation and associated fauna is sub-tropical, a tonic to the rolling arable land which dominates most of the rest of the North Island.
After a very long and tumultuous journey from the Coramandel Peninsula we arrive in Paihia, the departure point for cruises around the Bay of Islands. It has all the amenities of a small tourist town, but remains serene, or at least before the Summer, cruise ship, season kicks in. The township also nestles just next to Waitangi, where the famous treaty between Maori Chiefs and the British Crown was signed in 1840. After seeing the original
Treaty of Waitangi in the Archives
office in Wellington, we were certainly keen to see where it all happened, learn more about who was involved and the implications of the treaty for past and modern day New Zealanders. Interestingly we learnt that if the Maori's hadn't signed the treaty, New Zealand could have been colonized by the French who were "loitering" around the area at the time. Travelling around would have certainly been a lot harder for us if they had! We also learnt that Paihia and Waitangi weren't the political and economic hubs of the time. Instead, the now sleepy village of Russell, visible across the waters from Paihia, served as a port to every boat in the Pacific at the time. A town frequented by traders, seamen and rogueish passers-by meant that it soon earnt the reputation as the "hell hole of the pacific." It's a very different story today, as Tom and I found out when we took a couple of rusty bikes across on the ferry and pottered around the village. Perhaps Nadi in Fiji should now be bestowed with the title (all will be revealed in Fiji's blog)!
Following our day of history we took a "Day in the Bay"
Tui
NZs favourite bird. It has two voice boxes so it can make a variety of noises. cruise which was definitely worth the dough. As well as motoring out to the incredible hole in the rock formation, seeing diving Petrel birds, volcanic rock formations and lunching on a white sandy beach, we were also given the opportunity to swim with dolphins! A number of bottle-nosed dolphin pods live in the bay all year round, so you are more than likely to encounter these cool creatures. I have never actually seen dolphins in the wild and was amazed to see that as well as racing our vessel, they also performed tricks and jumps when the boat slowed down to observe them - very Seaworld! As it's fobidden to swim with juvenile dolphins, we didn't get to snorkel with them until the afternoon, but as we plunged into the cold water in our wet suits, we awoke from our post-lunch comas. The trick to swimming with dolphins is to swim, swim, swim as they are more interested in the Splashers than the Waders. After a couple of minutes, T spat out his snorkel mask and shouted to the boat crew, "They're squirting out yellow liquid!" which was met by a giggle and a "Yeah, they're mating!" Now some say
Tane Mahuta
God of the forest of Kauri - the largest living Kauri tree with a girth of 14m! swimming with dolphins can be a spiritual experience but I don't think this applies when you get caught in the middle of a dolphin gangbang! We felt incredibly voyeristic! After our date with the dolphins we made the incredibly beautiful journey up to, Ahipara, situated near 90 mile beach a stretch of coastline that's long, but not 90 miles! We rested up in the best hostel of our journey so far, "Endless Summer", where we could hear and see the ocean from our bedroom window. Tom cooked gourmet bangers and mash and we cracked open the "expensive" Chardonnay from the Hawkes Bay vineyard we'd visited, in order to celebrate a perfect day! Cheers New Zealand.
We didn't have time to stay a night on the western highway but the drive was broken up nicely into two sections. The first was a short car ferry section, which you have to take to continue on the same section of highway and avoid a massive detour around the estuary. Thanks to my skillful driving we were able to make the car ferry with a few minutes to spare! The second stop was to see the Kauri tree forests, which are only second
Bay Of Islands
An old tall ship serves as a reminder of the early European landing. to the giant Redwoods of California in terms of size, height and structure. We followed this up with a visit to the Kauri Tree museum - an odd but intriguing display on everything and anything to do with this native tree species. We learnt about the settlements that formed in the area due to the logging industry, the machines that were used in the logging process, the furniture and products that were made from Kauri wood and also looked at a display of Kauri gum - hardened kauri sap that resembles amber.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 19; dbt: 0.031s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb