Northland Tour

Although I did leave Christchurch, my advenutres weren't quite over - I flew to Auckland 4 days before my flight left for home, so I decided to try and tackle the peninsula North of Auckland - Northland - over those 4 days! Lucky for me, a friend I met while I was in Peru 3 years ago lives in Auckland and was AWESOME and decided to make the trip with me (thanks Mike)! Definitely saw more than I would have if I had been on a bus / tour kind of deal. So on June 24, I flew to Auckland ridiculously early, took the opportunity to store one of my suitcases so I didn't have to deal with it for the next 4 days, and grabbed some breakfast while I waited for Mike! On Sunday afternoon we headed up the east side of the peninsula North of Auckland and ended up staying in Paihia overnight. I was SO tired as it had been about 24 hours since I packed my room / finished exams / flew to Auckland, so I basically just crashed. The next morning, however, I discovered that it was SO WARM - break out the sandals yes please. By so warm I mean probably about 20 degrees - maybe 15 when it was cloudy. But WAY warmer than it had been in Christchurch and I was like WHAT this is winter??? No this is not. Ridiculous. After a brief exploration of the beach, we grabbed some breakfast and hit the road. We kept going North and visited the Waitangi reserve / park, where the Waitangi treaty was signed between Maori chiefs and the British in the 19th century. We lucked out and it was SUPER sunny! We explored the colonial house, the grounds and the marae (meeting house) that were on the property. Continuing North, we checked out a viewpoint and then a Huau (maybe? might be the wrong name) Falls along the way. We then hit Kerikeri, another town along the eastern side of the peninsula. Picking up some ingredients, we stopped on the road for a lunch break and discovered this random pile or pyramid of rocks with a cross on top, that was a cairn marking the graves of some important guys. Then the beach times began! The first one we checked out was Mike's favourite and was called Taupo Bay - as far as I know it is not related to Lake Taupo but I do wonder what the word means. The bar was so nice and the sand was so nice and it was so calm! The tiniest little beach community that seemed like I would just melt into a hammock and chill if I stayed there. It was especially cool because the beach was suuuper shallow and the tide was out, so the beach area was GIANT. After a beach walk, we continuing on our way, our next little side tour was of the Karikari peninsula. We had been advised of another great beach we should check out for sure. So we drove out and ended up at somewherr we don't think was the right place BUT it was still sweet! It was so different from the other beach - it had the grass covered dunes behind the beach and the sand was super light coloured and not gritty. Plus it was SO long. So, we did a little beach investigation and then ended up finding the intended beach on the way out. So beach #3 was sweet. Sand was super white and it was kind of a mix between the first two. We found a hostel not too far out of the next town and called it a day. Day #3 was the out and back to Cape Reinga day! The map is deceiving.... it was farther than it looked! It essentially took us a whole day to out and back from just South of 90 Mile Beach (with stops along the way of course!). Our first stop was to check out an ancient buried Kauri forest! The park was closed but they had a box out for money and said you could show yourselves around! Pretty cool. There were pathways through a forest of mainly manuka and kanuka trees, which were actually growing overtop of a buried Kauri forest - nobody really knows why but the trees are thought to have been destroyed by some cataclasmic event and buried at an angle into the ground.... BUT the trees are massive and were buried in an environment where they basically didn't decompose. So, nowadays, they use the 'swamp Kauri' as it is called, for construction and artwork. The wood gathered this way is usually about 45,00-100,000 years old!! What we checked out though was an old school gumdiggers comp - seemed to me like a mixture of logging and mining... the sap from the Kauri trees or 'gum', was extremely valuable and people made a living of digging holes down to the buried trees and gathering the petrified or hardened sap! Sounds like their lives were pretty rough and dirty... but I now know the reason they are called 'gumboots'!. After checking out the gumdiggers place, we continued on our way. We got to Cape Reinga around lunchtime and hurried down to check it out to avoid a storm we could see coming from miles away - we made it in time BUT had to take refuge behind the lighthouse and wait for a break to run back up to the car! SERIOUS downpour / wind time. The lighthouse at Cape Reinga ISN'T actually the Northernmost point.... there is somewhere else that's 3km further. But probably isn't accessible. Also they didn't tell you that till you got there. Haha. That's ok with me! In Maori belief, Cape Reinga or spirits leap is where the spirits of the deceased leave NZ and return to the ancestral homeland. So it is significant that way as well a geographically! Having to double back on our tracks to get back down the cape, we made some good time and had enough daylight left to check out 90 Mile Beach!! Which isn't actually 90 miles. I think it is actually 90 km. Deceiving but its fine. We did not drive on the beach but rather just walked out and check out the shore - stretched on FOREVER. Couldn't see the end. I could definitely see how you can drive on it though, the beach was super flat again and was like cement at the right distance between the water and dry sand. The good thing about checking out the beaches in the evening meant the tide was always out! Score. We stayed back at the same hostel as the night before and had one more day to check some more sights out and get back to Auckland. BUT YOU'LL HAVE TO WAIT to hear about that day cause my flight is boarding!!! :)