Waitomo to Auckland

After enjoying Waitoma Glowworm Caves we continued on our way north through the town of Huntly where the expressway to Auckland begins.  The Bombay Hills divide Auckland’s southern suburbs from the Waikato Region.  Pasture gave way to farmland.

Even though we reached Auckland well before the afternoon rush hour, the traffic was still quite heavy.  We had a plan to head for the north side of the city and find a nice campground along the Hauraki Gulf. We somehow lost our bearings once we got north of Auckland and the GPS, instead of helping us get back on track, was taking us through small neighborhoods right as school was letting out!  Now we were squeezing the campervan through narrow streets between intercity buses, kids leaving school on their scooters and skateboards, and kids rushing to meet their moms pushing prams – argh!  We were desperate to find somewhere, anywhere, to park the campervan and start happy hour early!  Somehow, after nearly an hour of nerve-wracking meandering, we found our way to Orewa and the Orewa Beach Top 10 Holiday Park on Whangaparaoa Bay – a bit farther north than our original plan but away from the maddening crowd.  Time for a well-deserved happy hour!!!!

 We set our sights on Whangarei (pronounced Fun ga ray!?!), an easy ride up Highway 1 - the Twin Coast Highway.  But we veered off onto a more scenic route through Langs Beach on Bream Bay.  From here we had a clear view across the bay to Hen and Chickens Islands Nature Reserve.

Whangarei Town Basin

The Whangarei Town Basin is supposed to be popular with international yachtsmen.  However, when we were in town at low tide there was not much water to be found in that part of the harbor.  We strolled along the mangrove-lined marina walkway to Hihiaua Point where the massive Waka and Wave sculpture depicting a Maori waka (canoe) breaking through a towering wave dominates the entrance to the town basin. 

The Waka part of the Waka and Wave sculpture...

...and the Wave portion

 

Whangarei is also home to the largest clock collection in the southern hemisphere housed in Claphams National Clock Museum.  As exciting as it sounded, we could not bring ourselves to visit.  It would most likely have been a disappointment after visiting the riveting sock machine museum in Hokitika. J

The date was September 24^th and we both felt that we were burnt out after three weeks on the move.  I needed ice cream! I needed a break from being a tourist!  I slurped up my ice cream and then we forced ourselves to visit one more tourist site in Whangarei – a drive up to Mt. Parihaka for a great panoramic view of the town below and the winding Hatea River.  We both agreed it was a worthwhile drive even if the car park at the end of the road was so littered with huge speed bumps that half the pantry spilled out of the overhead cabinets. Frank needed a break from driving so we spent the night at the Whangarei i-site parking lot, a ‘scenic’ paved venue right on Otaika Road, Highway 1 – a tiny step up from spending the night in a U.S. Walmart parking lot!

view from Mt. Parihaka

The next morning we were feeling refreshed and ready to move on to the next big must-see attraction in nearby Kawakawa.  This sleepy town’s worldwide claim to fame is its Hundertwasser Toilets!  Yes, toilets!  Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian-born architect, lived near Kawakawa without electricity from 1973 until his death in 2000.  The toilets here were his final artistic creation.  Brightly colored ceramic tiles, curvy shapes and empty bottles imbedded in the concrete walls combine to form a very unique set of public loos. If you can’t make it to Kawakawa to see Hundertwasser’s work, perhaps you can stop in Osaka or Vienna - some of his art work can also be found there.

 

Exterior of Hundertwasser's toilets
 

For the ladies

For the men

The town of Paihia is the gateway to the Bay of Islands region.  When Captain Cook arrived here, he counted 144 islands in the bay and I guess he could not come up with a better name than Bay of Islands.  It is a favorite aquatic playground for Kiwis and visitors alike.  These islands are all within 30 miles of the North Island’s coastline.  During glacial periods when sea levels were lower, the islands were connected to the mainland.

A short high-speed ferry ride across the water from Paihia is the sleepy town of Russell, once known as ‘the hell hole of the Pacific.’  In the 1830’s Russell was the biggest whaling port in the Southern Hemisphere.  Up to 500 whalers would arrive after twelve months at sea to this town which did not have much of a law enforcement agency.  Things would quickly get out of hand.  Johnny Johnston, an ex-con, operated his ‘Grog Shop’ in 1827 to cater to this rowdy gang.  Later, to gain some respect, he renamed his business ‘The Duke of Marlborough.’  In 1840, the newly formed government of New Zealand granted Johnny the very first national liquor license which is proudly displayed in the bar of this waterside establishment.  The Duke of Marlborough Hotel proclaims “refreshing rascals and reprobates since 1827. . .legally since 1840.”

Ironically, the once-rowdy town of Russell is also home to Christ Church, New Zealand’s first church.  One of the first donations for its construction came from Charles Darwin who was struck by the “very refuse of society” that he saw in Russell when he visited in 1835.  The church was completed in 1836.

Christ Church in Russell

At the Russell town dock, we boarded the catamaran Great Sights Dolphin Seeker for a three-hour cruise of the Bay of Islands.  Near the island of Motuarohia we stopped to watch dozens of bottle nose dolphins romping in the clear blue water.  The highlight of the cruise took place at Motukokako, or Piercy Island, just north of the Cape Brett lighthouse.  The captain threaded the catamaran through “the Hole in the Rock” – a narrow arched opening in Motukokako.  Turning back to Paihia we could see fur seals lolling about on the rocky Bird Rock island.

The Dolphin Seeker

 

Yes, the Captain of the Dolphin Seeker got through this Hole in the Rock!

Having seen the southernmost tip of the South Island, we were determined to make it to the northernmost tip of the North Island where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.  We hopped on Route 1 and headed northwest from Paihia’s Bay of Islands Motor Park.  The road was lined with rickety fencing that obviously was not strong enough to contain the livestock grazing in the pastures.  Road signs gave the phone number to use to report ‘wandering livestock.’  We came across more than one wayward calf munching grass on the roadside, oblivious to the occasional passing vehicle.

New Zealand’s road planners must not have been paying attention in Geometry class.  The shortest distance between two points is a straight line!  The North Road and the Far North Road were far from straight or level.  S-curve followed s-curve followed s-curve!  You have to admire the road planners’ sense of humor.  The posted speed limit is 100KM coming out of one s-curve and then changes to 25KM just a few feet away as you approach the next s-curve. And then back to 100KM again! And then back to 25KM! HaHaHa!! Frank likened driving on New Zealand’s roads to driving cross-country in the U.S on The Blue Ridge Parkway!  The scenery was beautiful but the trip was a nail biter as we shared the twisting uphill/downhill roadway with massive double-trailer logging trucks through avocado and macadamia nut orchards.

Finally we arrived at Cape Reinga, literally at the end of the Far North Road.  Technically this is not the northernmost point of the North Island as it is 3 KM south of Surville Cliffs.  But it is the most accessible northernmost point.  Surville Cliffs is accessible only by a very long tramp around Spirits Bay to Hooper Point and then along Tom Bowling Bay to Surville Cliffs.  We were content with the spectacular view of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean from Cape Reinga!  In our mind, we made it to the northern end of New Zealand!

Tasman Sea crashing on the beach at Cape Reinga

Cape Reinga lighthouse

Looking out at the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean
at the end of the North Island

Cape Reinga has great significance to the Maori people who call it Te Rerenga Wairua (place of leaping).  This is where the spirits of the departed leave for their journey back to the traditional homeland, Hawaiiki nui.

There is an alternative straight route up to Cape Reinga.  It is called the Ninety Mile Beach Road.  (It is not ninety miles long - it is 64 miles long!?!)  Rental vehicles are expressly forbidden to drive along this stretch of hard-packed sand along the Tasman Sea.  Many a car has been lost to the sea when the tide came up and flooded the beach!  After exploring the Cape Reinga area we retraced our route down the Far North Road to the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach at Waipapakauri Beach and found a nice motorhome park within walking distance of the beach.  Families were out foraging for dinner on the water’s edge – armed with plastic shovels and chilly boxes (coolers to us Americans) they dug for tuatuas, small clam like shellfish.

Bus returning with tourists after driving up Ninety Mile Beach Road

 

Having traveled up the east coast of the Twin Coast Highway we decided to travel back to Auckland via the west coast.  We would avoid a lot of backtracking if we took the Mangamiuka Road and Kohukohu Road to the Hokianga Harbor town of Kohukohu.  We plugged Kohukohu into the GPS and found that we were just an hour and fifteen minutes away.  Since it was only 9:30 we figured that we had plenty of time to make it to the 11:00 ferry crossing.  Wrong!!  We didn’t realize that we would be traveling along one of those snaking roads through the Maungataniwha Range.  We watched the display on the GPS counting down the minutes much faster than the Kilometers!  We told ourselves that if we made the 11:00 ferry it would be a pleasant surprise; if not, we would just amuse ourselves for an hour until the next ferry.  But who were we kidding?  Both of us wanted to make that 11:00 ferry and avoid spending an hour in Kohukohu, described in the travel brochure as a harbor town having ‘a number of important historic sites such as the Masonic Lodge…’

After 27 days, Frank had become one with the campervan.  He handled every uphill and downhill curve like a pro.  I held on tight.  About 5 km away from the ferry at 10:56, a pickup truck with an empty livestock trailer passed us by on the straightaway.  We could almost taste victory around the bend.  And there it was – the 24-vehicle Hokianga Ferry already loaded with 23 vehicles.  The attendant urged those drivers to inch forward and make room for our campervan.  We slowed a bit, rambled over the ramp and high-fived each other as the gate behind us closed.  Just as Frank turned off the ignition, the ferry began the twelve-minute ($42) crossing to Rawene.

Squeezed aboard the Hokianga Ferry

 

Where the Hokianga Harbor opens to the Tasman Sea is a large sand dune where sand toboganning is a favorite tourist activity.  We continued down the highway through the Waipoua Forest and the magnificent protected kauri trees.  The kauri tree, a type of conifer or pine tree, is New Zealand’s largest and most famous native tree.  The Maoris have named the country’s largest living kauri Tane Mahutu, Lord of the Forest.  The 1,500 year old tree is 168 feet high, with a girth of 46 feet. 

Tane Mahutu

 

It took me two pictures to get the entire tree!

As a young tree, the kauri has a narrow conical shape with branches along the length of its trunk.  As it grows, it sheds its bark and its lower branches.  Eventually the top branches develop into a massive spreading crown that stands above the other trees and dominates the forest.    When the lower limbs are shed or the bark is damaged, the kauri resin bleeds out and seals the wound.  Over time, the resin lump hardens and falls to the ground as the tree sheds its bark.  The Maoris collected the fallen resin and used it for cooking and lighting and as a pigment for their tattoos. 

A collection of polished kauri gum

The Europeans valued the resin for its many commercial uses - in paints, linoleum, candles, marine glue, jewelry, carving and high quality varnish.  The kauri trunk also yields flawless straight grained timber that was of enormous value in shipbuilding and furniture making in the late 1800’s.  Giant cross-sections of kauri trees are on display in the Kauri Museum in Matakohe.  The museum illustrates the role these trees played in New Zealand’s pioneering past and traces the history of the golden years of kauri logging and gumdigging that nearly decimated the kauri forests.  Around the base of the massive dead trees laid a treasure trove of buried resin chunks.  In 1885, as many as 2,000 Yugoslav immigrants were employed as gumdiggers to locate and dig up the lumps of resin and as tree climbers to wound the trees to bleed fresh gum. (That practice was banned in 1915.)  What a hard life these people led!

dwarfed by a kauri

 


With just one more full day left to explore New Zealand, we pulled into the Auckland North Shore Motorhome Park just outside of the city.  Public transportation into Auckland is just a short walk away.

Auckland, the City of Sails, is home to a third of New Zealand’s population.  With more boats per capita than any other city in the world and being almost completely surrounded by water, it certainly deserves the City of Sails title.  We walked along Waitemata Harbour, Viaduct Harbor (home to last weekend’s boat show) and Westhaven Boat Harbor (home to a 2,000-boat marina).  Dominating the skyline is the Sky Tower, New Zealand’s tallest building.  The fifty-mile views from the observation levels at 610 feet and 722 feet are fantastic.  The tower opened in 1997 and has attracted close to one million visitors per year.  For adrenaline junkies, there is the SkyWalk, a hands-free walk on the outside of the tower at 630 feet above the sidewalk or the SkyJump, an eleven-second plunge from the same height while attached to a safety wire.  We were content to watch the jumpers and plungers from the lower observation deck.

Auckland Sky Tower

Floral clock at Albert Park

After a short stroll through Albert Park we returned to Viaduct Basin, home to America’s Cup in 2000. We ended our month long visit to New Zealand with lunch at Degree, one of the many waterside cafes overlooking the huge moored sailboats.  Kia Ora!