Northland

One of the things that we have noticed while travelling around Oz and NZ, is that early explorers like Capt Cook weren't very original with the names of places that they spotted. For example, Bay of Islands….is exactly that; a bay full of islands. This tradition seems to have stuck with Kiwi's as the area to the north of Auckland is imaginatively known as Northland! This was the first part of our journey around in the campervan and we headed north to see what there was to see.

The first main stop on our itinerary was the aforementioned Bay of Islands, although on the way we drove through some amazing areas. Some highlights included the town of Waipu; which is an old Scottish colony from the mid 1800's. It was settled by a Presbyterian minister who left Scotland with some pilgrims, initially for the coast of Canada and settled in Nova Scotia, however after few years there they decided the didn't really like it and headed off once more, eventually settling in the town of Waipu. There are still a number of direct descendants from the original ship still living in the town which is very proud of its Scottish heritage. They have signs in Gaelic on the entrance to town and every year, they have the Waipu Highland Games.We also passed through Whangarei, which is a large town and a commercial centre for the area, but mainly we stopped to see the Whangarei falls which are on the outskirts of town and were lovely. Its little stops like this, that make travelling by van really worth it as although you probably wouldn't make the effort to head straight for them, they are nice to include on our route as its so easy.

We arrived at the shore town of Paihia which is the main port for the Bay of Islands quite late that evening and checked into a local holiday park. This was really nice, but also one of the most surreal nights we had.We had been getting our stuff together and headed to the kitchen area to make dinner when we saw that there were loads of people in there. We had been told that a large group were arriving when we checked in, but nothing could have prepared us for the sight that greeted us when we walked into the kitchen…and straight into a priest saying mass! We quickly grabbed a seat and sat through this impromptu mass and gradually worked out that everyone around us was French and on there way to World Youth Day in Sydney.At the end of the mass, the priest came up to us to say thank you for joining them and we had a bit of a chat about their trip. It turns out that they are all from Lyon, and they had come to the Bay of Islands as a French bishop called Bishop Pompalier, who was originally from Lyon, had set up the first catholic settlement in the area when NZ was being colonized. He used the area as a base and also set up a catholic printing press which made thousands of copies of the bible in Maori and English to spread around the country. The priest was also able to explain the reasoning behind the different Our Father we had heard, and that he also did during the mass. It turns out that a long time ago, when trying to convert people to Catholicism, they used an americanised English version of the Our Father, which simplified some of the passages for teaching the local Maori people. As a result, this is how the church in the north island says the Our Father (apparently in the south island, they are more conservative and stick with the traditional version)

The next day we headed out to sea for a tour round the Bay of Islands and Cape Brett. Cape Brett is well known as the hole in the rock and from the pictures we had seen, that's exactly what it was. (it's a bit like Loch Ard Gorge on the great ocean road in Melbourne) Unfortunately for us, as the ship headed out of the calm of the bay, the sea was just too rough to try and head for Cape Brett so we had to abandon that leg of the journey. I have to say, I wasn't overly impressed with the Bay of Islands. Obviously being winter didn't help and I'm sure in summer it's quite nice to cruise around them, but in general they didn't really have any distinctive features. However as number 7 in the things to do for Kiwis, it was something that we had to go see.Just across the bay from Paihia, and accessible by car ferry or passenger ferry, is Russell.

This is a really nice town that has a lot of history and a few notable tourist sites. The first is Christ Church, the oldest church in New Zealand. It's a really nice Anglican church, made of wood and was one of the few buildings left standing after the town of Russell was practically destroyed following a battle between the local Maori chiefs and the British navy who were in charge of the port at the time .The reason for the battle was surprisingly, the felling of a flagpole.The local chief, Hone Heke, had been arguing with the European settlers for some time and had threatened to chop down the flagpole on a hill overlooking the town. He did it 3 times, each time the navy raised a newer one with more security on it, and the final version had cast iron plating around the base to prevent it being chopped down. This lasted for a while until an attack by the Maori distracted the navy and Hone Heke chopped down the flagpole for the 4th and final time in March 1845. This enraged the navy commander at the time, who abandoned the town and ordered his ships to fire on the town and destroying most of it. There is actually a flagpole there now, which was constructed by the Maoris in 1857 as an apology for the acts that went before.Russell these days is a thriving tourist town with lots of little café's, quaint shops and B & Bs and it has totally shrugged off its old nickname as the "hellhole of the pacific."

Further up the road from these 2 towns, is one of the most famous places in New Zealand; Waitangi, where the treaty of Waitangi was signed between the Maori people and the British crown.The actual treaty grounds were the homestead of the local governor James Busby who ruled over the European colonies in the area at the time. On the site now, they have restored the original house as it was and there are also some new Maori artefacts which were created to mark the centenary of the signing of the treaty. There is a replica of a war canoe and there is also a meeting house constructed there. It is a very interesting trip to see the treaty site and understand what it meant at the time; especially as there are still disputes regarding the treaty and how it applies in various circumstances (there is currently a full time Waitangi Treaty Tribunal that deal with all cases and report to the government). It also doesn't explain why Kiwi's all decide to do the circle line pub crawl on Waitangi Day either!!!

We left Paihia and the Bay of Islands area, and once more headed north along the east coast. One of the first stops that we made was a bit of an odd one, as we had travelled inland a bit, to go see a toilet. Not just any old toilet though, this was something that I remembered from the Billy Connolly show and it was also mentioned in the Lonely planet and the 101 things to do for kiwi's which made it a must see ! The toilet was designed by Austrian artist and eco-architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser and is completely bonkers and yet brilliant. It is apparently typical of his architecture and is made of lots of ceramics, crazy tiling and recycled glass bottles for windows and light fixtures. Check out the pictures, its weird but nice. It is also the only thing of any note in Kawakawa, so we left there fairly quickly. We stopped that evening for fish and chips in Mangonui. A little town that really reminded me of Leenaun as it is perched on a bay. (also because it was raining) These are apparently the best fish and chips in NZ. They were pretty good and it was the first time I had tried deep fried mussels; which weren't all that it has to be said. The coast road was really nice and as we took our time driving in and out of bays and inlets the views were gorgeous all around despite the weather closing in on us a bit. As night fell, we pushed on to a small place called Waitiki Landing, which is pretty much as far north as the main road will take you, and stayed the night.

The next morning, we got up nice and early and headed for Cape Reinga, which is the most northerly point of New Zealand. We knew that it was a bit barren up this far north and the lonely planet said that it was a gravel road; that was an understatement. The road to the actual cape rapidly becomes little more than a dirt track up and down even more hills than we were already used to. It certainly isn't the best road to be taking a campervan around and it rattled our fillings during the journey.The cape is marked by a large lighthouse and is the point where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet leading to lots of large waves. However on the day we got there, you could barely see 50metres away as a result of the bad weather. It is also a really windswept spot which was pretty chilly so we grabbed our pictures and rapidly headed off. It is actually a really nice place and on a fine day you can walk around the cape and take in the views. Cape Reinga is also considered to be a sacred place by the Maori as the point from which the spirits of the dead leave Earth and enter the underworld which is hidden by a large tree at the foot of Cape Reinga.We had now reached the most northerly part of New Zealand, and the only thing to do now, was turn around and head south.