To the Northern Tip of New Zealand

I slowly prepared everything to head out on a roadtrip with a stranger. It was an interesting thought process...am I crazy? Will this person be nice? Will they leave me stranded in a remote location? I decided to push all those thoughts from my mind and realize that he too was opening himself to a similar situation. Thomas picked me up at my hostel and we took off heading north towards Whangarei. We had nothing planned or necessarily agreed upon for locations to visit but both had sites on our lists. When we got to Whangarei, we stopped at the iSite to get some directions to the hostel we booked, Little Earth Lodge. When we got back in the car, it wouldn't start and in fact the key wouldn't come out of the ignition either. Thomas called a Mercedes repair guy and they said they'd come out for $500...had to get it fixed so he spent the money and it was actually a really quick fix. Something to keep in mind when buying a car out here that not many people own (Mercedes). After it got fixed we headed to our hostel which was a super cute place tucked away.

We checked in and headed back out in search of the sunset and a mountain along the water. The fog socked the sunset in but the mountain we found was interesting to say the least and loomed over the road above us.

Then we headed to New World grocery and picked up some food and drink for dinner and the up coming days. We cooked up a feast of marinated beef, tortellini, and salad with some Carlsberg beer to wash it down and prepared for the following day.

The following morning we took off from our lodge (Little Earth Lodge) and paid $5 for a headlamp, helmet, and water shoes to hit the Abbey Caves which were just a short walk away. We made our way to the first cave, Organ Cave, which didn't look like it could be possible that someone wanted us to walk in there...we actually passed it at first thinking that can't be it! Turns out it was and it was scary! We had to climb down some rocks to enter the cave and when we were just 5 feet from the entrance it was pitch black except for our headlamps.



We made our way cautiously into the cave and stopped to shutout lights off and check out the glow worms. There were quite a few worms glowing and the longer you kept the light off the brighter they shined. I wish there was a way to take a photo but even with the GoPro there was no easy way.

We went into 2 more caves, Middle Cave and Ivy Cave although I think that the first one was my favorite cause it seemed that we could go the farthest in it (the last one the water got too deep and I saw an eel in the second one that was quite large...eek!).





After the caves, we headed to the Whangarei Falls to check out the most photographed falls in New Zealand which were quite stunning.

 
We also did a canopy walk to and from the falls called AH Reed Canopy walk which consisted of all the preplanning I had done for the day...not much as I found already it was best to be a bit flexible with your schedule.

We started our drive up north to Paihia and arrived with enough time to find a hostel and drive over to Shippey's for some good old fish and chips, calamari and chips along with a mega jug of Wild Buck. A jug is our pitcher equivalent so we had quite a bit of beer to start the night. Shippey's is an old ship that appears to have hit a sand bar and no longer runs and it just so happens to face the sunset perfectly.

We made our way into the hull of the ship after dinner and there was a jam night going on where anyone could show up and partake in playing an instrument. Surprisingly people were able to pull together incredibly well and create some great music including a lot of good stuff I knew.
 
Today we embarked on the Cream of the Bay trip! It is not what you think... Cream of the Bay is a full day cruise around the Bay of Islands. It got its name from its previous purpose of picking up cream from the neighboring islands to return to Paihia. It morphed into a mail and goods delivery service and tourists jumped on board to help with the cream pails in order to get a free trip around the bay and the service again morphed into a tourist trip that also does mail delivery. Fun fact, mail is only delivered on Monday's, Wednesday's, and Saturday's in New Zealand. Luckily we were cruising on a Monday and got to see the mail delivery and pick up at the neighboring islands. This was pretty cool because it seemed so old fashioned and service oriented. The people on the islands here the "honk" of the ferry and the people on land come out to meet the ferry with a bag of mail and pick up their mail as well. Many times there were dogs waiting on the dock for us and they all received a treat. It was definitely a personal touch that I appreciated. Out first stop was in Russell which was visible across the bay and a cute small town out on a peninsula that you can drive to or take a vehicle ferry over to. If I had more time I may have made a point to wander the streets of that town but no such luck here and since it was similar to Paihia it was easy to miss on this trip.




En route to the largest privately owned island we passed these beautiful black rock formations where the green lipped mussels lived.

One of our guides jumped off into the bay and shucked some fresh mussels from the rocks which a little later towards lunch he grilled and we all got to try one. They were delicious and of course extremely fresh! Still nice and warm when we got them too. We made a few more stops along our way to our lunch spot at Urupukapuka and ended up seeing a dolphin pod that swam right at the bow of our boat!

It was so beautiful to watch the dolphins swim in and out of the water and this pod even had a few calves with them. Unfortunately this made it impossible to swim with the dolphins due to regulations on swimming with calves or juveniles. When we got to our lunch island we disembarked and took to a path up the closest hill for an overview look of the Bay of Islands. It was absolutely stunning...

After our short walk I was ready to jump in the water and do some snorkeling.

I didn't see much until I realized that the crew was throwing food into the water behind the boat so I swam over there and saw a ton of larger fish and swam right into their pod while they were eating. It was a crazy feeling to be swarmed by the fish and I would dive down and look at them from below...really cool angle! I finally got out I the water when I felt one nibble my elbow and thought it was time to get out of the water before I became fish food too! After lunch we continued on making a few more spots here and there we made our way to Motukokako or better known as the Hole in the Rock. On calm days you are actually able to cruise through the hole however it was quite windy and there were white caps throughout the tunnel so the captain made the executive choice to not go in based on safety. I was a little bummed but honestly that hole was quite small and I didn't think that we would fit!




We made our way back towards Paihia and found another dolphin pod along the way but they also had calves with them so instead we made a stop over for some snorkeling at a reef nearby. The guide jumped in the water with us and he would dive down and grab some shell fish and crack it open and the fish would swarm him and eat out of the shell.







It was pretty cool to watch! Then we got pulled in the boom net which was basically a net right along the side of the ship that pulls you along through the water. It was super fun but not so fun when your bottoms begin to come off!

I met a really nice German girl in the boom net who was traveling by herself for the past year in New Zealand but was leaving for Australia next week. We made our way back to Paihia and hopped in the car to take off towards Cape Reinga to find a place to stay. I decided to try my hand at driving on the left side of the road and took the wheel. It was funny to have to constantly remind yourself to stay on the left. The really tricky part for me was turning both left and right. What a trip! I got a hang of it and we made it all the way to the beginning of the Ninety Mile Beach.

We decided to stay over at Lake Ngatu down the road for free because they had a really nice view and more importantly toilets!

Off we went to Pak n' Save for some additional things for dinner. We cooked at our car camp by the lake and made quite the feast...we had salad, sweet corn, mac and cheese, and pepper steak filets. It was a meal fit for a queen and it was cooked quite well I might add. We had to cook in rounds so we ate everything separately but still quite tasty and even better when paired with Honesty Cider (apple flavor=so good!). We called it a night relatively early and tried to make ourselves comfortable in the SUV.



Woke up in the car around 9 am at our lake location ready to spring to action...kind of. It was a bad nights sleep in the front set of the car but surprisingly I was able to sleep until 9... After we packed up and cleaned the dishes we took off for Cape Reinga, the northern most point of New Zealand. We arrived around 11:00 and did a little walking tour. I thought the light house would be on the water but it was quite high up. It was cool because it was where 2 bodies of water met, Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean and was called the Meeting Point and you could see them collide and mix with each other. It was a tumultuous area of water as they fought each other.
 






Turns out I am only 10479 km or 5709 nm away from LA. It seems so close when I say it that way. Hi to my friends and family across the pond! After checking out the cape, we made our way back down the peninsula.

I stopped at the great dunes for some sand boarding of course! It was incredibly high an looked like the slope was about 80 degrees...almost straight down, at least that is how it felt. The walk up was pretty grueling but it was totally worth it! What a crazy rush of adrenaline on the first run and on the second and third I found myself attempting to go faster and faster. After my third run my quads wanted to kill me so I called it a day with the sand boarding and headed back to the car where my friend was sleeping while I did crazy shit. Sounds about right.

After sand boarding we took to the road again and stopped at a lake for lunch...standard PB&J, chips and a bevie, cider this time. After our quick lunch we headed back to the lake chalet aka Lake Ngatu so I could jump in some fresh water and clean off. It was much needed since I was covered in sand and the water was surprisingly warm too. We continued on our way toward Waipoua Kauri Forest in search of a place to stay near by. We got to a small town Opononi and stopped at their I-Site location but they were closed, bummer! So I consulted my CamperMate app on my iPhone which is available offline and shows great things for anyone road tripping through New Zealand including campsite, recycle facilities, attractions, public toilets, free wifi, gas stations,and accommodations. We found Globetrekkers not far from us, rang them up and they had a vacant 6 person dorm room that we took as ours since it was a slow night for them, lucky us, sad for them. The town, Omapere, is a sleepy seaside town but right on the ocean with a gorgeous sunset that's not to be missed. We made dinner in our hostel after going out in search of mussels at the only restaurant in town (not on the menu anymore) and called it a night do we could be well rested for our forest treks tomorrow.