Northland

Ella and I very willingly left Auckland two days after arrival in pursuit of warmer weather and that famous New Zealand countryside we've heard so much about. We decided to rent a car and assumed that we'd spend most nights at campgrounds sleeping either outside or in the car, which ended up being true for Northland. We hadn't considered the complexities of getting out of Auckland in a country where driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car is the rule, but fortunately, Ella agreed to be the braver of the two of us.

Her grip on the wheel loosened a bit and her knuckles returned back to their more standard peach-ish color when we were clear out of the city, heading north on SH1. We made little stops shortly outside of the city to gaze at beaches and try and find groceries for our pursuits, but our first real stop was at the Honey Centre and Cafe. This place was nothing short of delicious, with seemingly endless different kinds of honey for sampling and, to our delight, manuka honey ice cream for sale. This is, in case you were wondering, far and away the most delicious ice cream either of us have ever had. Yum.

Pulling ourselves away, I suggested that we stop at Leigh and the Goat Island Marine Reserve, a bit farther up on the east coast of Northland and a recommended stop in the Lonely Planet Guide we brought along with us as a reference point. In between, we stopped for some necessary portraits at a playground:

We figured that we would stop there for an hour or two and then head up the coast with our sights set much farther north for the evening. How wrong we were.

We arrived at the Goat Island Marine Reserve (Goat Island itself is a short distance from the shore, easily swimmable, though we decided against heading over to explore) and realized to our delight that we had found paradise. The shore across from Goat Island is a black sand beach that at low tide has plenty of rocks that creep out into the water, filled with tide pools that have little ecosystems milling about within them. The area has been protected for quite some time now, and marine life flourishes. Much to our delight, we saw three eagle rays (like manta rays, which we originally thought they were, though they eat different things) over the course of two days.

That night, we stayed at a campgrounds right up the hill from the beach of paradise. The campgrounds were similarly idyllic- run by a laidback woman, the campgrounds were equipped with a full kitchen and bathroom set-up with hammocks everywhere and sheep, cows, and horses off in the distance in pretty much every direction. Geniuses that we are, we spent the late afternoon building a tarp out of duct tape and every last plastic bag we had with us jerryrigged to our raincoats. We were elated at the opportunity to use our new tarp and both insisted on sleeping outside under the stars which, beautiful and lovingly interrupted by cow's moos into the night, was ultimately a doomed dream given that we were cold. We sought refuge in the car, which sort of fixed the problem, and made a pact to at some point put the tarp to use.

We awoke in the morning to a rooster that refused to stop its morning cock-a-doodle-doos but were saved from being annoyed by that fact by the sights around us-- the morning renewed our amazement in our surroundings, and after breakfast, we headed back down to the beach. Our morning laziness was interupted by the friendly captain of the Glass-Bottomed Boat, the boat that people tour around the bay in to see all the marine life wonders that abound. We were two of very few people on the beach that morning and he was bored, so after making friends he offered to give us a ride to a nearby beach that was about a half hour walk. We agreed and, after a short boat ride, found ourselves in an even more idyllic setting. The sand on the beach was PINK-- seriously, pink-- and there were so few visitors that practically every last shell was uniquely beautiful and unbroken by excessive human footsteps. After Ella took a quick dip, we walked back to the parking lot and, quite unwillingly, continued on our adventure.

The remainder of our three days in Northland was mostly filled with beautiful beaches and drives through the most spectacular countryside I've ever seen in my life. One other highlight to share was our venture up to the kauri forests on the west coast of Northland. We took a short walk through the woods and saw two incredible sights. The first was the Four Sisters, four huge kauri trees that are astoundingly beautiful, and then quite possibly the biggest tree ever which is called the father of the forest. It could be around 2,000 years old and has a diameter of 16.7 meters. I am not really sure how to describe it because even though I had read about it beforehand, words did not in any way do justice to the majesty and imposing size of this tree.

Layouts are being funny, so I'm going to post a separate post for pictures as soon as I can pull that together-- expect some beautiful Goat Island shots and some really beautiful trees.