The Cape and back again...

It’s been a while since we last blogged and there is much to talk about.

We visited Whangerei Falls as it was next door to the appropriately named Whangerei Falls Campground in which we stayed. Apparently the most photographed waterfall in the country, which is probably due more to its closeness to civilisation rather that its beauty as we have seen some more spectacular falls after a few hours walking. We left Whangerei and went to see what was confidently written on our map –The Southern Hemispheres Longest Footbridge- a few wrong turns and gravel roads later we came to the spot, disappointed is not a strong enough word to describe what we felt, I’ll put a picture further down for you to share our feelings. It may well have been long but it was probably also the southern hemispheres ugliest use of concrete.

Enough whinging. We drove further up the coastline and stayed in a few beautifully located campsites where we sunbathed, snorkelled and fished, Puriri Beach was a particular highlight and will be remembered fondly as I caught my first Snapper here, it was a monster as you will see in the pictures. The Bay of Islands was very scenic and we floated our van over the gap between Russell and Paihia on the $12 car ferry, after viewing some of the areas nice beaches and staying the night practically on top of Haruru Falls we continued further towards the top of the country. The Karikari Peninsula was a particular highlight where we scoured the rock pools for creatures and found countless crabs and starfish as well as some spectacularly huge shells. I caught a big wrasse here and cooked it up for dinner. At the foot of ninety mile beach we found a nice holiday park, it was raining and we decided to wait here until the weather cleared up to head up to Cape Reinga at the far north of the country. The weather got the better of us and we stayed in one of the sites luxury cabins for two nights, the first building we had slept in since Fox Glacier over 2 months ago. We got a break in the weather and slogged up to the cape which was breath taking, the sky was clear and the sea surrounded us. This point is where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet and there is a clear line where the two currents interact causing a very strange criss-crossing of waves. After walking to the lighthouse on the edge of the island we drove back inland to Te Paki where monster sand dunes loom overhead, we climbed up some and played around in the sand on a body board we found. I tried sliding down headfirst but the board got stuck in the sand and I carried on moving so ended up with a face full of sand, on this note we decided to leave.

Lauren’s 25^th birthday was fast approaching so we headed back south, we revisited Goat Island of course to say hello to the big snapper once more, and stayed another few nights at Tawharanui. This was probably the last time we would camp on the beach before we get into Auckland and sell the van so we made the most of it and got into our wetsuits and snorkelled with the eagle rays again. We eventually tore ourselves away and carried on south to the city. We had booked a hotel that had caught our eye on our first drive through Auckland, the Copthorne Hotel on the harbour front. Two nights of luxury were on the cards, I lost count of how many baths we had. On Lauren’s birthday we visited Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World where we spent a few hours watching King Penguins and sharks. Later on we went into the very cool Freddy’s Ice House, a bar crafted entirely of ice, even the glasses you drink out of are made of ice. Several cocktails and shots later we went to the harbour for a meal and ended the night in another bar in front of a nice warm fire. In the morning we had a cooked breakfast and then embarked on a day of exploring Auckland’s shopping streets. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay in the hotel for another two weeks so we went to the motel we had booked. It had good reviews and was a good price for a week’s stay, when we arrived we realised why it was as cheap as it was next door to a building site. We stayed a night out of courtesy to the friendly owners but when we were woken at 8am by noisy builders we got our money back and found another motel.

The Mount Albert Lodge, a clean airy motel with full kitchens in the room and sky TV. Hooray! This will be our home until we fly to the states. For the weekend we had two car markets lined up where we would try to sell Maggi, the van’s warrant of fitness (MOT) was going to run our soon so this was our only chance to sell her. On Saturday we took the van to Auckland City Car Fair where we sat in our van in a miserable car park and watched the rain pour down, about three people looked at the van and none showed any real interest. We left disheartened and didn’t hold out much hope for the market tomorrow, it was looking unlikely that we would sell Maggi. The Market the next day was a completely different story, the sun was out and there were hundreds of cars for sale and dozens of vans, as well as a lot of buyers. Our van was priced low as we needed the sale and we got attention instantly, we held of finalising any sales until the end of the market just in case we got any higher offers, but settled on a friendly guy who would turn the van into a minibus for his charity. It was a shame that she wouldn’t remain a campervan but we couldn’t be fussy. Money was exchanged there and then and it felt good to have sold her, it was hard to say goodbye to our home of 6 months however and was very weird using public transport again. We didn’t suffer the public transport for too long and in two days picked up a rental car, an automatic Hyundai Getz, which we are using to scoot around the city and visit some of the sights further afield. Auckland Zoo was great and has some of the best and biggest enclosures that we have seen. We also took the stomach churning lift up the Sky Tower to the incredible panoramic viewing platforms with views all over Auckland and to faraway mountains and islands. Auckland has a ridiculous amount of Westfield shopping centres of which we have visited nearly all picking up bits and pieces for Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Today we went to Piha, a surf town to the west of Auckland and known as one of the most dangerous beaches in the country. It has even spawned its own TV show about how dangerous it is called Piha Rescue, and after seeing the size of the waves it’s not surprising why. We wandered along the beach and then grabbed a bite to eat before driving around the coast to some other sights, all in all a very enjoyable and relaxing day.

There is a lot to do around the city so hopefully we won’t run out of things to do before our flight one week from today. We are very excited to get to America and seeing our friend Stu, and are excited to trek down into the Grand Canyon although less happy about the walk back out.

See you all soon.