Today started with a phonecall home to see how the car was and if it had passed it's MOT without too much work. It had and only cost £212 - phew !

We decided to follow the coast road to get towards the Kauri forests. This was a lovely drive scenery wise but a little challenging for the driver. It was not so much the twisty nature of it but the unpredictable road surfaces and roadworks. It was very apparent they had had land slips and the road had suffered as a result and indeed in one place it was down to one lane as one of them was sitting 10 or so feet below where it should be. The views were fabulous as we headed through the countryside and the Herekino forest.

The Kiwis appear to be very resourceful in their recycling efforts, not for them the recycling bin. We so far have seen hub cap and bike fences but a variety of interesting mail boxes. I did like the stripped down VW camper van at a jaunty angle to the standard postbox but my favourite was the purple painted microwave.

Anyway back to the road, we followed this round and started to see views of the Hokianga harbour and Waihou river. I reminded David and I of Loch Lomond and David of the old road around it. I was beautiful. We followed the road around until we came across a carpark with a caravan selling coffee from it. This was the Hokianga vehicle ferry terminal. I reminded me a lot of the King Harry Ferry in terms of scale and design although it was not a chain ferry. We caught the 12 ferry and enjoyed the 15 minute crossing to Rawene, it was well worth the $26 fare. Alex and I had a look around the passenger area of the ferry which was very small before returning to the van to look at the view from there.

When we docked at Rawene we drove through Oponi before stopping at the Omapere i-site for advice on picnic sites and Kauri trees. On their advice we headed out past Omapere and turned into Signal Station Road to a scenic lookout. We parked in the carpark and ate lunch with a view of the sand dunes and confluence of the river and tide that we had glimpsed on our way from the ferry. The view was phenomenal and I am sure any photos I have taken do not do it justice at all. We then took a short walk to one of the lookouts but decided to go no further as it was windy and the path was narrow. The girls were also a little twisty and sad not to have a playpark to burn off some energy.

We drove onto the Waipoua Forest, the roads were OK at this point. Our first stopping point was to see Tane Mahuta, Lord of the forest., named so after the Maori God of the forest. This is the tallest Kauri tree in the forest and only a 5 minute walk from the car parking bays along the road. It is amazing that they ever find these trees as they are good at hiding. The canopy is an ecosystem in its own right. This tree is truly impressive, I am not sure how to describe it and the scale of the tree. It is one of the largest things I have ever seen. This tree was a well visited one and we saw a lot of people go through here. We then moved onto see Te Matua Ngahere, Father of the Forest and the four sisters. This had a carpark costing $2 and was very much quieter. We walked to see the tree and it was certainly larger in girth but had sadly lost a good part of the canopy which was now lying on the ground. The four sisters while they would have been unimpressive as single trees had grown together in such a way they were fascinating. The walk to the trees was slow and full of falls from both girls. Elizabeth managed to scrape her knees and Alex managed to slide on her back along the ground and almost under a sign ! We then carried the girls a good part of the way back on our shoulders, they thought this was great and decided we were horses. As a result Alex fed us pretend hay and jam most of the way back.

After this we returned to the van and decided to head onto Dargaville, more to reduce our journey time tomorrow than because there is anything much here. The campsite is basic but cheap at $30. The girls have had a good play on the smallest adventure playground I have ever seen but it was according to Alex, fantastic ! Dinner was delayed as the pasta sauce had bashed open the seal enough for the contents to go mouldy meaning David had to walk to the supermarket and pick some more up.

The campsite here has little to recommend it.