The sun was shinning as we arrived in Omapere in Hokianga. Along the bay were holiday cottages. A white sand beach stretches all the way to Opononi Wharf. On the other side of the harbour stood giant sand dunes. They advertised dune surfing on boogie boards, we passed on that as we have done it in South America. Opononi/Omapere was made famous in the mid 1950s by the tame dolphin Opo, who used to let children ride on his back. We stopped off and ate some deli...

We finally arrived at Waipoua Forest which preserves some of the best examples of kauri forest remaining in New Zealand. It is has two of the largest living kauri trees, Tane Mahuta with a girth of 13.8m and Te Matua Ngahere which has a girth of 16.41m. They are the largest in New Zealand. we visited both of these trees and like proper tourist and had our pictures taken... They were huge. It was a shame that the trees were fenced off because you can not tread o...

En route to Waipoua forest we stopped off at Maunganui Bluff for lunch. The beach was empty and the sea was rough. We both were starving so it was a nice break especially when we had been driving all morning.

A lady from my work wanted to show Stevie and I around the north of the north island. So Cheryl, her husband and Stevie and I set off on our mini road trip. Our first stop was the picturesque west coast village of Matakohe, Northland, we went to the Kauri Museum. Approximately 90,000 people visit this internationally acclaimed Northland heritage museum every year. The Kauri Museum is the perfect insight into Northland’s pioneer past. After this we drove to t...

Our Spanish friend Begonia who we met in South America arrived in Auckland so we went out with her and her friend for a meal on the viaduct to catch up. It was really good to see her again. Stevie and I have booked our Christmas getaway to Fiji. Which should be amazing. Can't wait!!! Not much else going on Stevie got a pay rise and I saw the sun rise. We will do little updates like this between trips so it records our route correctly on the map.