We’ve been here in New Zealand for one week now, and the blog has a lot of catching up to do. Most of the first week has been jammed full of trips, treks and adventure, and with just enough time for our sarongs to dry out in between swims. It’ll be hard to go into all the details of what we’ve done so far without writing a novel, so I’ll try to make it a quick recap. On our first full day in Auckland we found a car–a great 1994 Honda Civic (there’ll be a separate post all about the features of the car and how perfect it is for our trip!). We found it online for sale at a small dealership in Devonport–just a short ferry ride across from Auckland. After a somewhat nervous test drive (stay on the left, stay on the left), we were convinced this was what we were looking for. Having the car taken care of we were free to start exploring the North Island and getting on with the trip.
Our first stop was a bit north of Auckland at Maharungi Regional Park. After showing us our campsite, the camphost then showed us the showers–a beautiful teal blue bay. It didn’t take too much convincing to get us to “shower”. Morning swims, afternoon swims, evening swims–no matter what time of day the water feels great! We ended up spending two nights at Maharungi–one at Sullivan’s Bay and one at a backcountry site on Mita Bay. The hike from Mita Bay gave us our first taste of New Zealand ferns which are nothing like ferns back home–they’re more like trees. It’s pretty exciting to have an entirely new set of plants, birds, animals, etc. to experience and learn.
After Maharungi we continued north up the east coast to Waipu. In full New Zealand adventure spirit we took on what I call the Waipu hat trick–three stops in one day. First we took a short hike out to Piroa Falls–a destination that one of our guidebooks considered “nothing special as afar as the scenery goes”. It was a beautiful water fall with several deep swimming holes right at the base. Check out the pictures and see if they seem sub par–if our guidebook is right, then I guess we’re really in for a treat at some other falls. After the falls we took off for Waipu Caves. These caves (and others in NZ) are open for exploration–no user fees, no bars closing them off, no guides to hire. The caves are well known for the glow worms that cover the cave ceiling like a small milky way. After trudging through the muddy cave floor and wading through a shallow underground stream we turned off the headlamps and were treated to this incredible sight. The picture does no justice to what it actually looked like. Finally, after the cave trip, we headed for our final destination of the day–Uretiti Beach. There’s a DOC campground there that was full of folks getting in their last full weekend of the summer (school starts back up here on 2/2/09 -folks here put the month second and the day first, but today this works for all of us!). We picked out our spot and made a quick beeline for the beach–a long stretch of white sand and blue water. We took the obligatory swim and then settled in for a good night’s rest.
The water is so warm here that a 7:45 am swim on a cloudy day was perfectly comfortable. What a way to start the day! We picked up where we left off and had another busy day planned–Whangarei Falls, A.H. Reed Kauri Park, and Abbey Caves. Since then we’ve made it back down the west coast and have landed at our first WWOOF stop–White Cliff Brewery! More on that later–it’s great!
Week one has been phenomenal, and we know that we’re just getting started. We’re enjoying every minute of every day and having an absolute blast. At the same time, we miss all of our friends and family back home and love getting the skype messages and emails–so keep them coming!
