Labour Weekend has come around again and this year we went on a road trip to the Far North with Jamie and Anna. In contrast to our previous adventures, we didn't plan what to do or where to stay, just winging it! As you know we no longer have our good old Spacewagon, so it was camping all the way!

The aim of the trip was to drive up one side of the Northland to Cape Reinga and back the other side (it's a peninsula).

So we set off from work early Friday eve, driving as far as we could before darkness fell. We got to a 'special' place called Dargaville - famous for being the Kumara (NZ sweet potato) capital of NZ. Much to Tim's delight the campsite owner took pity on us camping in the cold and let us share a cabin for $4 extra…bargain. Winging it meant we didn't have food, so we'd to embark on a food finding mission. I don't think the Chinese have really reached Dargaville, as we watched a lady pour sweet and sour sauce from a watering can onto our pork balls! Other highlights of Dargaville include being offered drugs by youths on the street and meeting passed out drunks on the side of the road in the morning…. so we headed off north to see the worlds largest Kauri tree.

En route we stumbled into driving mishap with a biking 'gang', when Jamie and the angry biker decided to overtake a car at the same time. We initially thought that the flip of the bikers middle finger was the end of the matter, but soon realised how little the 'gang' appreciated this when 2 angry bikers approached the car at our next stop to pick a fight and ripped off our wing mirror, tossing it into the car then ranting about how we weren't using it anyway! After failing every effort to get us out for a punch up, they left us to it and Jamie bodged the important parts of the cracked mirror together so we could get back on the road.

Saturday evening we reached the massive sand dunes at Te Paki Stream for some sand dune surfing. This was immense and definitely a NZ highlight. Had the sand dunes not been so hard to climb, I think we might still be there! Check out the video…

We felt less than welcome on arrival to the local campsite when directed to consider the alternative up the road, then after opting to stay at least this time we actually pitched the tents.

Sunday morning we reached Cape Reinga, which the guidebooks led us to believe was NZ most northerly point, but turns out it's not. We did however watch the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea collide. This is a very spiritual place for Maori as they believe souls depart here back to the Polynesian islands where their race originated.

We drove on towards the Bay of Islands, not before going for a spin along 90 mile beach. It's not often you get to drive on a beach, so we took full advantage with handbrake turns and general pissing about!

It was Jamie and Anna's first time at the Bay of Islands so we let them lead the way. Sunday night, the weather was a bit dull and drizzly so we stayed in a backpackers and went out for dinner.

Monday morning the weather was unexpectedly fab so we hung around a bit longer and visited Waitangi Treaty Grounds (Where NZ's founding document was signed by the various Maori Iwi and British). Tim and I flashed our NZ drivers licence and posed as NZ residents to save the $30 entrance fee and even got to see inside a Marae for the first time, which was pretty amazing.

So omitting the 5 hour drive back home, that was our 2012 Labour Weekend, definitely more eventful than last years.

Roll on the summer…

Ro & Tim x