Having done the Treaty grounds and decided against the dolphin trip, the Bay of Islands now only had boat trips and nice views to offer us. We had taken in the views and on this particular part of the trip boat tips were not on the menu.

Our next venture was to Cape Reinga which is the furthest Northen point of New Zealand, and according to the Maouri the departing point for a dead persons soul as it passes to the other side! This was a very long trip with winding roads, which are fine on their own but just like the UK weather the rain presented itself making this a tedious drive. On arrival at Cape Reinga we were shocked at the small scale of the lighthouse, which is relied upon as a working lighthouse to prevent ships smashing onto the rocks. Next to the lighthouse is a signpost with pointers in directions of several different cities of the world, London being the furthest away (check out the pic for the distance we are from home at this point). Directly below the lighthouse you can see on the picture a white swell similar to that of a wave crashing onto a beach, this is however the exact point where two seas meet(…………………….). After a few snaps it was time to get back to the van as the rain returned, this also meant we could only view the massive northern sand dunes that dominate the surrounding coastline instead of wonder round them but hey we have seen sand before.

Next stop was Ninety mile beach which would be better named 90km beach as it would be more accurate, this was one of those places you just go to say you have been as there really is nothing there other than the usual sand and sea. Nearby was our campsite for this night in a place called Ahipara, which had a massive kitchen with an oven!!! A rare thing on a campsite, so it was proper wedges and pizza for tea.
Our next day was planned to be a busy one a we had lost ground due to the poor weather, so we opted for a ferry crossing to get across the inlet to Hokianga instead of a long drive around it through inland. This is a Maouri outback with little more than the local shops and the ferry crossing, but does serve as a quicker route to Waipoua forest which was our next destination. Our visit to the forest was to find the biggest remaining Kauri tree (remember the one the canoes are made from), which we found and it is an absolute GIANT having lived for around 2000 years. This thing just dwarfs its surroundings and people, there are few left as most were felled in the 1900s due to their worth for building with until a ban was put on felling them Kauri just in time. Further on in the forest trail we visited the 'four sisters' which is a group of four Kauri trees growing what looks like from one stump, Carina used herself and sisters as a comparison!!!!!!! (Nothing to be said about that I think!!!) From here it was pretty much drive until we got near Auckland, this took us to around tea time as a short distance takes a long time on New Zealand roads. We had liked Waipu Cove (our first nights stop) so much we decided to divert there to camp as it was on the east side, we could then do an early drive down the coast to Auckland the following day. This turned out to be a brilliant decision as a walk on the beach at sunset was amazing, but not as much so as the sunrise the next day right over the cove with a rising mist from the forest on the headland which David was up for but sleepy head Carina was still wrapped in the duvet.