Shortly after our last post made on that rainy day in Kerikeri we retrieved our van from the mechanic (at a cost of over $400) and headed to Matauri bay at the north end of the bay of islands. The rain was still coming down. After a night of again heavy rain we were starting to assume that this was the norm for New Zealand! We awoke to the news that all routes out of the bay were flooded until further notice and that we were caught up in an anti cyclone which resulted in the rain being forcast for a couple of days! Great! The van was leaking and had refused to start and everything within the van, included us, was getting more and more soggy! As it turned out this was a 1 in 150 year storm and in over 36 hours there was half a meter of rainfall! Wow!! Anyway, as it turned out there was a couple whom we got chatting to that had tried to leave and got turned back due to the flooding. They had a boat with them and offered to take us out fishing in the bay of islands! Sweet!
Hamish and Kelly were really friendly and looked after us (plied us with beer) and let us stay in a caravan that they had hired out which was a very welcome break from our very damp van!
We got plenty of good tips from them on where to go and what to see on our way up North. The fishing the next day was good fun and we even managed to spot a few penguins and a hammer head shark!
We then headed towards the far north and ended up staying in Cape Reinga for a couple of days. This is where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet and sometimes the waves there can get up to 10m in height!!
The area was very wild, lots of mosquitos and sand flies (we got mullered!!) but the weather, scenery and fishing was fantastic! I even managed to get a shark to the shore along with other hard fighting fish species. Lots of fun.
After a short tourist stop to the light house (where you can see the two oceans meet) we headed south again to visit the giant sand dunes and then onto somewhere to stay.
The highlight of the west coast (and the best beach so far) was Baylys beach which was quite simply stunning and wild!
You could see the fish within the big waves like dolphins playing and stingrays flapping around and feeding when the waves washed out on the incoming tide.... cool stuff!
We have visited the forests with the biggest known Kauri tree (trunk is something like 14m round and its 51m high!).........
Soaked ouselves in natural mineral hot mud springs (great for the many bites we had at the time!)......
Surfed......
Fished....
And stayed at some wicked little spots.....
Its difficult to remember all the spots we have stayed at and what has gone on and when, so we have just written up on the times and places that have stood out for some reason or another......
As i write this we are staying (and have been for a couple of days) with Tony and Anna in Aukland and have prepared the wagon (proper pit stop, battery change, clean down etc etc) to head south around the Coromandel, the East Cape, Hawkes Bay (great vineyards) and then down towards the southern point of the north island so that we can cross to the south, which is bigger and more stunning from what we have been told. Its also where all the really crazy fun stuff is........... its taken us three weeks to just do the northern part of the north island! So as we say at the top of this post, we may be some time!!!
