Off up North from Auckland we head. The weather is looking gooood and Duncan has decided that we will indeed camp...hmmmm. Apparently he believed me when I said 'sure we can camp'. We have been to The Warehouse (Duncan's favourote shop as he can buy a fleece in there for 5 English Pounds!) to stock up on all kinds of crap in the camping section, including a whistling kettle and outdoor shower thing. Nice.
First stop Piha. After getting lost in the very steep forest mountain we finally got to the coast, a gorgeous black sandy beach that sparkled like it was home to thousands of diamonds as the sun set across the crashing wave backdrop surrounding Lions Tooth rock.
Duncan was a true man and pitched a tent and cooked on an open flame, a gas powered flame but still many man points he did gain. Camping wasn't as cold as I thought it might be either, probably due to the fact that I insisted we bought the sleeping bags intended for 0 degree temperature climates!
We have, however, learnt that if you get in the tent with a torch and watch a movie on your ipod Do Not then get out of the tent to go the toilets! It turns out bugs are attracted to the light (who knew!) and all flew in the miute we opened the door so we then had to play squat the mosquito. I think I won and the black marks now on teh inside if the tent prove it.... The next morning it was bloody raining though wasn't it! No more romantic picnic blanket meals and sunshine. Now we have a wet tent in the car and cherrio's all over the front seat from me trying to eat from a shallow bowl. hmmmm. Grumpy Annie.
I decided to take the wheel on the way to the next place, up the West coast, and apart from Duncan pushing me out of a dip which I thought I would do a u-turn in I am loving the driving! We found a cute little vineyard and winery to have a few tasters. Apparently NZ is famous for it's Sav's and Pinot Noir's so they'll be my drink of choice for the next few months. We bought a couple of bottles, had a wander around the vineyard and headed onwards and upwards slightly drunk as the breakfast thing hadn't quite worked out...oops. Luckily the scenic roads of NZ have lots of little stop off bviewing points and picnic breaks, unfortunatly it is a crazy windy day and making jam sandwiches turns out more tricky than planned!
We stopped at our first Top 10 campsite in Waitomo forest this evening (after the cheaper government campsite option was spookily empty). and wow! This place is beautiful - the moutains, covered in trees, create a stunning background to the clear running river that babbles along the bottom of the campsite.
I accidentally left Duncan to put up the tent by himself as I discovered a zip wire and trampoline playground. hehe. Again, the sun was shining this afternoon and it was a lovely day. Which obviously changed the minute morning broke...and it rained. again. I do not enjoy this.
We are continuing upwards for one more night, to eventually be able to get o the northernmost point, but on the way we have to stop at the famous (in NZ maybe) Kauri tree. It is 2,000 years old and it it HUGE! The daddy of the forest. A lot of the Kauri trees were once cut down but are now protected although a lot are being dug up from swamps where they were buried hundreds of thousands of years ago. My history on the trees is a bit patchy and the tree is well, just a big tree, so let's move on.
Kaitaia. This is just a stop for the night so we can go the on the bus tour up the Ninty Mile Beach tomorrow but oh joy of joys....we stay in a hostel! 2 nights of rain and the idea of getting up early (well, 8am) and packing up a tent helped me pursuade Duncan. This evening we have been told to head over to Mangonui to get the 'best' fish and chips in the whole of New Zealand. You don't need to tell me twice. Sadly, they were probably not the best we've ever had (is this because we are British?) the chips were McCains oven chips - weird. and the fish was good but not worth the reputation. Beautiful view over the sea whilst we ate though.
A day of not driving, hurrah! It is crazy how tiring driving can be when you haven't done it in years and today we are getting a bus tour up to Cape Reinga, the top of NZ. Getting a bus through the narrow twisting lanes and mountains of NZ is the scariest thing ever but our driver seemed completly crazy so we thought we were probably in safe hands. We made a few stops on the way up at the Kauri museum where they made some beautiful furniture out of the swamp Kauri and a lovely stop on a beach for lunch.
At the top of the land we walked to the lighthouse which is at the point where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet. This is also said to be the point, in Kauri legend, where the souls of the dead leave NZ to go on to the spirit world. The toilets here also cost about 1,000,000 NZD to build. (I was listening see!)
On the way back we go down the 90 mile beach (which is actually only 63miles). This is something you are not insured to do in a car because of all the quicksand and if you stop in the wrong place for long enough then that is it, you're stuck! but first - we get to go sand tabogganing! The climb up is seriously steep though. I just got Duncan to carry my toboggan so all was well!
Some other people on another bus arrived just after us and they had boogie boards which went seriously fast down the slopes. Three of them decided to go down together, which didn't look like a good idea, and low and behold one swerved into the path of the others and they whacked heads. He had no memory afterwards of what had happened and she had a huge bump, at times like this I wish I was more useful with first aid, but I'm not and the tide was coming in so our bus left. We then shot down the beach at about 100km which was just pretty awesome really! We even saw a car in the quicksand that was apparently resurfacing after several years.and the best news yet, we get to stay in a hostel at Paihai tonight because by the time we get there it'll be too dark to put up the tent - yay! We found a lovely bar on the seafront and had a chilled out evening.
Duncan spotted a cafe last night that serves huge fry-ups so guess where we went this morning? After a huge breakfast and a little wander around a craft market in Paihai it started to rain, again, so we headed to see some nearby waterfalls.
The first one we headed to had a sign about an hour and a half walk and since we haven't done much exercise so far we decided this might be a good idea! We packed the bag with all essentials, water, coats, chocolate (Duncan faffed for what seemed like 15minutes) to then walk from the car park and realise the waterfall was right there, and a bit shit. oh well. We then went on to the Whangerai Waterfall which is like the Paris Hilton of waterfalls apparently - the most photographed but not the best. It was ok and I had a nice drink....
Continuing south, Duncan needed a relief break, or just wanted to go see the famous (again probably only in New Zealand) toilets designed by some Austrian artist (paying attention again) They were quite pretty in a mosaic kind of way but bizarrly are on the map and had loads of German tourists visiting and taking loads of photos... even if Duncan was taking a wee (mind you why would you take a wee in a urinal if there were people taking photo's of the facilities?!)
We thought we might stop in Whangerai for the night but it reminded us of Stoke-On-Trent and why would you choose to stay in Stoke? So we powered on to Orewa Beach and camping, again... hmmm. Orewa is a lovely coastal place that is getting really 'built up' (not like a city but built up for NZ) and is quite touristy and popular for surfers in the summer. It was a bit windy and wet whilst we were here though so we didn't get to spend any time on the beach. We did find a bowling place where Duncan whooped my ass - everything really is upside on the other side of the world!
We also went to the Thermal Spring Baths in Waiwera. The baths are lovely...mmmm. Especially after a cold night in the tent! haha. The best pool by far had to be the movie pool which was 40degrees and had movies on - sadly we got there at 11am and the movies didn't start until 4pm and my resolve to stay there for 5 hours to see The Blind Side didn't hold out that long! Getting out of the pool into the freezing air was not so lovely. This evening we headed into town and like proper tourists had out all our guide books and maps planning the next part of the trip. New Zealanders are so lovely - seeing that we were touring they came up to us giving us advice on where to go and welcoming us to their country. Sweet as.
I have decided to let Duncan drive today and the car has broken down. A direct correlation I can not suggest but it is a coincidence....haha! We spent the next 4 hours of our day in a petro station just north of Auckland whilst we first waited an hour for the AA, who said the radiator had a leak and it wasn't safe to drive (Quality Rentals my arse!) so we then had to get the rental company to agree to a tow truck. An hour later the tow truck arrives and appologises as he has just had a call from the rental firm saying they don't want to pay for a tow and instead they are sending someone with a car to exchange with us. 2 hours later again we have been sitting in the car, in the blistering heat (of course it is hot today!) and we finally have a new car - just in time to hit the rush hour traffic going through Auckland on Labour Day weekend! We have decided that tonight we will drink....
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