Blogs from Northland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

Par Sylvain: Notre route pour remonter l’île nord par la côte est nous aura pris une semaine et nous voilà de retour à la cité des voiles, la plus grande ville du pays. Revoir la sky-tower d'Auckland et circuler à nouveau sur ces autoroutes à deux ou trois voies nous rappelle le début de notre aventure, mais nous fait aussi prendre conscience que notre boucle est bientôt bouclée! Après cette première visite d'Eden dans l'optique de sa revente, nous sommes heureux de continuer notre voyage pour notre dernière région à découvrir dans notre van adoré! Notre point de départ en ce dimanche 10 avril est à une cinquantaine de kilomètres au nord d'Auckland, en bord d'une mer bleue ponctuée de petites îles, dans un décor de cité balnéaire où vit une population aisée. La route, pour ... read more

On my way to Kaitaia today to visit the 90 mile beach and parts north to the tip of the North Island - Cape Reinga. On my way I dropped by Kerikeri to see a few sights. One of them was the Stone Store, open for business since 1836 and it is New Zealand's oldest stone building and the oldest store. You can buy the Jews harp or the pen quill and many things in between. An interesting visit. Situated nearby was the Kerikeri Riverside Walk and access to two waterfalls - Rainbow Falls and Wharepuke Falls. The latter could be reached by a gentle, 20 minute hike, one way. For the other you could basically drive and needed to hike only if you wanted to see the base of the falls as well. Following the ... read more

Friday January 1 - Today we continued our journey north, stopping in Cooper's Beach in Doubtless Bay along the way. The weather was not very good - a lot of wind and rain. The van kept blowing to the side and Jeroen had to make constant corrections. We stopped at a store that sold wooden objects made from Kauri trees that died and were buried in the swamp 45,000 years ago. Pretty amazing. The Kauri (cow-ry) tree is the largest and most famous tree from New Zealand. They are enormous but there are so few of them left now. Inside the shop they had a staircase that was built through an old kauri tree that is priced at $2.5 million! From there we continued up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of New Zealand, where the ... read more

After leaving Uretiti we made our way down the coast to Mangawhai. Stopping at both Waipu Cove and Langs Beach on the way. We are definitely starting to get into the more populated areas, so It’s pretty hard to get a picture on the beach without people in it! My pick out of these 2 beaches would have to be Waipu Cove. Has a lovely a sheltered area at the Northern end where kids can play on the rocks and in the stream. It’s a very pretty area. We have been in Mangawhai for the last few days catching up with friends and enjoying this stunning area. I wouldn’t perhaps want to holiday here in the peak of summer as I could imagine it would be absolute bedlam. There are 3 must do’s here: ... read more

Not a breath of wind this morning, the sea was like a mirror at Manganese Pt. The sun was shining down on us as we perched ourselves on the seat on the hill drinking our morning cuppa. (Thinking of the poor buggers heading off to work). What a view to wake up to. A couple of chores on our list before we can explore around Manganese Pt. We desperately needed to clean the roof hatches on the motorhome. It is a mission unbolting everything and squeezing Lance out the roof hatch. Thought I was going to have to butter him up to get him out:). One hatch done another 2 to go……….will put it on the list to do and when time permits. The cloud rolled in this afternoon with light rain, but we still headed ... read more