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March 24, 2006
Road Trip to the tip....of NZ north
The times in Auckland were awesome. Made some incredible friends and had some great parties....unfortunately there's a ton of New Zealand to see and very little time left for me to do it. Of course, I really didn't want to say goodbye to the friends so in a drunken epiphany (one that was actually a good idea for once) we planned a road trip north. I'd read some cool stuff in the Lonely Planet about the Bay of Islands, Cape Reigna and the Kauri forests so we rented a van, packed mysef, Paffrath, Dave (Irish guy), Annik (German girl), and Maeve and Sue (Irish girls) in it and headed north.
Only 45 minutes out of Auckland and you get a true sense of New Zealand...rolling hills, beautiful coast and farmland full of sheep. We left around lunchtime and got into Paihia and the Pipi Patch Resort around 4pm. Nice little place associated with the same company as ACB (Auckland City Backpackers). We checked in and for an extra $10 we got a delicious bbq meal and a free pint of Export Gold. Don't let the name fool you though....it tastes nothing like Molson Export and like most Australasian lagers, the Gold designation means it tastes like water. If you want a truly tasty kiwi beer, try a Tui.
After some time in the hot tub (mmmmm, it's been entirely too long since I've been in a hot tub... may have to rent one for my welcome back party in October...or maybe rent a house first....details..) we ate, took a nap, toured Paihia at night (everything was closed) and crashed.
In the morning we did some sea kayaking...well, sort of. We went up the river to play in some waterfalls. After that, myself and Maeve headed on a hike for a great view of the bay while the others kayaked out to an island.
After a quick stop on a hill to grab pictures of a ceremonial flagpole (where the treaty of Waitangi was signed) we booked it north to Cape Reigna to try and catch the sunset. This turned out to be a race against the sun which we barely won. The road from Kaitaia to the Cape was incredibly winding with the last 20km being a one lane gravel road barely fitting of someone's laneway. We arrived just to catch the last bits of light leaving the most northern point* of New Zealand. We spent the night at the most northern accomodation, the Waitiki lodge, which has the nicest pool tables I've seen in the southern hemisphere.
The next day we rented some boogie boards and headed to the dunes near 90 mile beach. Awesome time. We were all knackered (pommie [aussie for POME {originally Prisoner of Mother England - ironic cause it originally denotes the convicts...ie Aussies}, slang for the british] for tired) after climbing the dunes and boarding down them but well worth it for the views of the dunes and the ocean.
After that, it was another race with the sun, this time to get to the Kauri forest before sunset. We cruised past Kaitaia and headed south on the most winding road I've ever driven on. It felt like a go-cart track, just constantly turning left then right and 40km/h felt deathly fast.
Eventually we figured out that we couldn't make a ferry crossing in time so we took sort of a shortcut. Note: if a map has a road on it in NZ and it's not a major or regional road....do NOT take it. Earlier I mentioned the road that was barely a laneway...this one was barely a strip of gravel through some bush and fields...but it did get us there on time. Score another one for the amazing driving/navigation skills of me.
Arriving at the Kauri forest before sundown we got to see Tane Mahuta 'God of the Forest', a 2000 year old Kauri tree. It wasn't really that tall...at least it didn't seem so....but it was fat! Huge girth...(that one's for Shippey).
We stayed the night at a holiday park in Dargaville that was only $20 and had TV's in both rooms of the cabin and a nice little kitchenette. If you're ever in Dargaville...I don't know why...stay there!
One helluva good road trip with the Auckland gang. Cheers guys!
*note: apparently North Cape is the most northern point, but you can only get there by hiking.
Posted by Dr.Unk at March 24, 2006 10:43 PM
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