It's Definitely Not Grim Up North - 2 of 2

Before continuing northwards, Mister E and I had unfinished business in Paihia with a trip to the Waitangi Treaty grounds where the fascinating story of the pact reached and history behind the treaty between the British and Maori is set out in a new and informative museum. This was followed by a visit to the site of the signing and the home of the original British Government Resident before a Maori cultural show which included a demonstration of the spine chilling Haka.

It was a relatively short drive from there to Kerikeri with its Rainbow Falls and the basin (again steeped in Maori history) including the oldest stone building in New Zealand; you definitely don't see much built in stone as you travel around.

From there ever northwards, this time as far as Doubtless Bay, reputedly so named because Captain Cook on charting New Zealand dismissesd it as "doubtless a bay" without exploring further. Well he missed a treat, although I concede that most of the buildings in beautiful Mangonui were erected at least 200 years after he failed to set foot.

Another overnight in a Bed and Breakfast and we were on the road for an epic trip to Cape Reinga. A little like John O'Groats in the UK, it's famed as the Northerly point but isn't really. As time did not allow the trek to the actual tip of North Island, Cape Reinga it was, although we did divert on route to look at an old gumdiggers' settlement which was fascinating (naively I'd never realised the origins of amber before), as too was the white sand at Rawawa beach (seriously white). 

Ninety Mile Beach, in reality almost thirty miles shorter, runs along the west side of the

peninsula but the highlight has to be driving over green hills and then suddenly spotting a large yellow one in their midst which is actually a sand dune although it towers out of the landscape like a pyramid. The Cape itself was wild. The offshore tidal race is where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean and for Maori represents the coming together of male and female and the creation of life. A direct contrast to the Cape itself where the spirits of the dead leap off the mainland to descend to the underworld and travel to the Maori homeland of Hawaiki.

Accommodation in the vicinity of Cape Reinga is limited, so for us it was another long drive back (this time southwards travelling the route we had come) to Kaitaia before setting out again the next morning through wood and farmland to the car-ferry to Rawene. What a setting and of course we lingered, taking in both a stroll and coffee on the verandah of the Boatshed above the water.

The colours were a feature of our travels that day. I don't know if it is the angle of the sun or perhaps because there is so much less air pollution than I am used to but the contrast in New Zealand between sea, sand, grass and sky is breathtakingly beautiful. We stopped frequently on our route alongside Hokianga Harbour, just to marvel at the allure of our surroundings.

Continuing southwards (along the west coast) we plunged into Waipoua Forest, stopping to gawp at the size of Tane Mahuta a giant kauri tree more than 50 metres high with a girth of some 14 metres and perhaps as much as 2,500 years old. It is so hard to imagine the extent of the Kauri forests that covered much of the North Island before commercial interests intervened.

 We caught up with more of that beautiful contrast of colour at Kai Iwi Lakes, very much deserted at the time of our visit, before continuing to a bach stay to the south of Dargaville. It was another of those places we wished we had arranged to spend more time in, just to enjoy the view from the property we were staying in which had begun life as a cricket pavilion but like many homes in New Zealand had the benefit of being transportable.

So sadly we moved on the next day, ticking off the Kauri Museum to shelter from the rain and making our way back to Auckland and an evening out with the eldest and his girlfriend before another change of scenery the next day.