Whangarei - Kahoe
Kahoe
Kahoe - Auckland
Auckland
Auckland - Waitomo Caves
Waitomo Caves - National Park
National Park - Picton
Picton - Renwick

Now for the second half of our adventure of the North Island of New Zealand, Another long waffly blog once again...Sorry!

[Before we forget, We need to introduce our new mascot who travels with us, her name is Holly the Hammerhead for obvious reasons.]

On leaving Whangarei for Kahoe, we stopped at the Whangarei Falls which is supposedly New Zealand's most photographed waterfall. We had to see for ourselves what all the hype was about. Obviously we were expecting immense beauty but it was otherwise. It was just a waterfall 26 metres high cascading over the edge of an old basalt lava flow...big wow and the water was all murky. Whats worse is, it was off an almost residential street.

We stopped off at Paihia which is known as the hub for the Bay of Islands, the birthplace of NZ and where the treaty of Waitangi was signed between the Maoris and the British Crown. From here we caught a passenger ferry to Russell which was a former base for the South Pacific whaling fleet in the 1830's (and where a lot of debauchery happened...). Russell was a cute historic town, and it was here that Helen saw her ideal house...We had our lunch on the beach which was serene. The afternoon was spent cruising around the Bay of Islands looking for Dolphins (We saw none...) but we did see many of the 150 islands including Roberton Island where Captain Cook anchored the 'Endeavour' (that man has been everywhere) and the Hole in the Rock (Motukokako Island).

We stayed in Kahoe, and made this our base for the next couple of days which suited us as we found this awesome farm hostel owned by a Kiwi and her Italian husband who is obsessed with football. Ideal for Nick as we spent the evening playing in a table football competition (where obviously Nick won and Helen came last!). The farm had some cute/ugly (depending on your opinion) Kune Kune piggies and some black sheep. It was evident that the piggies rule the place grunting and oinking at the sheep at any given opportunity.

Our next stop was breakfast in Doubtless Bay, which was idyllic and has a fishing port feel before heading to Cape Reinga (Not the most northernmost of NZ but close enough). Cape Reinga is known as the Maori jumping off point for souls as they depart the world. There was a cute Lighthouse and seeing the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet you get an 'end of world' feeling. It was surreal.

On our way back to Kahoe, we stopped off at Tapotupotu Bay, Rawawa Beach and the world famous Ninety Mile Beach. All of which are white sanded beaches, Ninety Mile Beach is an official highway but we were too scared to drive on it in fear of sinking in the quicksand. However we did see a coach speeding past...The evening was spent eating fish and chips in Doubtless Bay watching the sun set.

Our next stop was to be the city of Auckland, The afternoon was spent walking the city taking in the sights and we visited the Deaf Club as recommended by a Kiwi friend. We were horrified to find that we had to be introduced formally on stage in front of everyone and introduce ourselves...but we met lots of friendly people!

The next morning, Nick went on a Sailing tour on an America Cup boat. He had a go at sailing the boat and really enjoyed the boat sailing at high speeds. Helen didn't fancy sailing so she browsed the shops and wandered around Auckland instead. A rare moment being apart from each other!

Nick had signed up for the Tough Guy Challenge in Auckland with minimum training but, he certainly is a Tough Guy managing to complete the 12k course in 1 hour 13 minutes. However, not without injury...he managed to get a huge gaping cut in his knee which needed seeing to by St Johns Ambulance. While Nick was sweating the course out, Helen managed to meet another Deaf guy whose wife and friend were doing the course - it turned out that his wife went to Mary Hare. What a small world!

We then drove to Waitomo, as we had booked ourselves onto a caving experience abseiling and tubing in the caves. However, the following morning Nick's knee did not look good and we cancelled it as we didn't want to risk his injury getting worse. Thankfully they gave us our money back!

Our final two nights in the North Island was spent at the National Park Village, where we completed the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The day was spent feeling like little hobbits walking across Mordor. We did a 19.4km walk renowned for its barren landscape covered in snow, the walk took us along the base of Mount Doom from LOTR and up to the Red Crater of Mount Tongariro where we had lunch on warm lava rock before sleighing down the mountain on our butts which hurt like hell. Helen was a nervous wreck!!! The last 45 minutes was through a rainforest which seemed to go on forever. Definitely the best 1 day tramp we have ever completed, and is highly recommended on a visit to NZ.

We had a very ambitious last day on the North Island, driving from the National Park to Wellington via Palmerston North where we stopped for lunch at a yummy Turkish restaurant. We caught our ferry in good time and when we arrived in Picton, we headed back to the hostel we had stayed in a couple of weeks ago.

After a good nights sleep, we drove along the Queen Charlotte Drive to Havelock which was stunning as the views over the Sound was spectacular.

Our next destination was Renwick in the midst of Wine Country. (It was only an hour or so away from Picton) we arrived before lunch and hired a bike from our hostel, we then did a 15km bike ride taking in several wineries such as Cloudy Bay, Moa Beer, Bouldevines, No 1 Family Estate and Wairau River.

Clearly, its impossible for us to do a tour without buying any goodies...as we returned back to the hostel with lots of bottles of wine and beer!!!