We came across Matakana on our road trip towards Goat Island, which we gave up on when we realised we had to get a boat to it or swim, which would have beena little chilly. However we are really glad we bumped into the small village of Matakana as it was a saturday, and a lovely day - it was thriving.. with a really nice farmers market selling all the local products such as Jams, chutneys, vinegarettes and wines. There were also tool smiths, butchers etc all adding to the oldy atmosphere. The smells coming from here were so nice!! The town had a cute white wooden church, lots of coffee shops, restaurants and a really nice nature reserve with a river meandering through it. The public toilets here were really nice (they actually were!!) but you need to see the photo to see why 'cos I cant really describe it properly!

We moved on to the harbour town of Whangarei, and since the area was so scenic we decided on taking the 40 minute climb through the Parihaka Reserve to the summit, which is an old eroded volcanic cone rising to 241m above sea level. Here, there have been extensive remnants of Maori Settlement, and Whanagarei's War memorial stands at the summit - which had amazing views of the city and harbour. We later drove through the town of KawaKawa, famous for the Hundertwasser Toilets, built and designed by the Australian born artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser - who believed straight lines are evil.. and for this reason the toilet is decorated with wavy lines, ceramic mosaics, brightly coloured bottles and with plants and grass growing off the roof- it was a little crazy but actually really interesting to visit!!! Really cool designs but again we know what your thinking (im talking about a toilet again!!) But they are NZ'S most photographed toilets!!

Our next destination was Paihia, so before moving on into the town we camped up just outside for the night at a really nice campground looking onto the sea, I think we paid for that view as well haha!! Today we stayed in the town of Pahia,enjoying this small coastal town surrounded by the Bay of islands. We drank hot chocolate on the riverfront cafe, which was lovely and then headed up into the Opua forest which has a small stand of Kauri trees and a number of walking tracks, however we were busy talking heading for the lookout view at the top that we forgot to lookout for the trees hahaha. Ah well if they didn't stand out to us they can't have been that impressive. The views overlooking Pahia and the bay of plenty were well worth the trip.. and sure did burn off the peanut butter and jam sarnies! We took a trip to see the Haruru Falls which were quite impressive in their own right and then relaxed along the beach before heaing to a cheap campground to hit the journal hard.

While in Pahia we were planning on going to the Waitangi treaty Grounds, NZ's most historic site where in 1840 maori Chiefs and the British Crown signed New Zealands most significant document but it wasn't cheap and the weather started of a little dull int he morning so we moved on.

By the time we had got up the road to KeriKeri the sun had burnt through and it was another gorgeous day! We started of with the usual cafe trip, opposite an orange tree farm, which was really cool to see and then headed to some of NZ's oldest and historic sites and building based in the Kerikeri basin. We thought we had better take a gander to soak in some of the history of the area and i'm glad we did. We checked out NZ's oldest surviving building 'Mission House' which belonged to NZ's earliest successful European settlement back in the day. It was actually a really beautiful building based on a beautiful river, with St James Church in the backgorund another historical icon and Rewa's village across the river, a replica of a typical Pre European Maori fishing village. It was a great place for a picnic and a stroll but we had no food haha! Inside Mission house you can take a tour upstairs but downstairs is the shop where the ladies are dressed in old frocks making and selling hand crafted gifts and old school lanterns, padlocks, metal drink containers, and gardening equipment etc, which were all common tools and equipment used back in the day. It was pretty interesting taking a look around actually.

From here we really wanted to see some more lookouts over the Bay of Islands so we travelled up to Doves bay and Opito bay, lovely little harbours and very rich villages with beautiful houses on the cliff tops. The drive here offered some great views and then from opito bay we took a short 20 minute walk to one of the lookouts which gave us exactly what we wanted to see. The islands were a littel further on the horizon but you got the jist of how beautiful it all was without having to get a boat trip out there around the islands. We had really enjoyed our time in Kerikeri and it was definitely worth the visit. We didn't know much about it but a local lady we got speaking to in Makatana recommended it to us as well as a great little fish and chip shop further up the coast at Monganui in Doubtless Bay. we thought her advice had been good so far so we decided to drive up and check it out and they were absolutely lovely. Apparently in the Doubtless bay information leaflet this chip shop is 'World Famous' and it was good but i think there exagerating a little haha!!