So we made our way up from the Tongariro National park, back up to the North of the Island. Our next job is near Whangarei which is on the East coast near the top of the North Island. We planned to go right to the top of the island to Cape Reinga up the West coast then back down the West to Whangarei. We spent our first night on a campsite at Matakohe, right next door to the Kauri & Pioneer museum. It was a really interesting place, giving you an insight into the lives of the early settlers. It also showed how they managed to fell and cut the massive Kauri trees, some were upto 28feet in diameter !!! They also dug in the swamps for the precious Kauri Gum (basically the solidfied Kauri Sap) Most of which was exported back to England in huge quantities and accounted for the same value in export as that of the gold which was mined in NZ. Most of the felling and gum collecting was carried out by Dalmations (Croation settlers). We left the museum and carried on up route 12, it was an amazing drive, passing through huge forests on a really steep winding road, we think Mr & Mrs Wilson senior have driven this route which was a nice feeling !. The highlight of the drive was stopping to see a giant Kauri tree. It is supposed to be 2000 years old and is huge ! Not so much in height (although it is 50m tall) but its width is massive !. I don't think the pictures will do it justice. We carried on motoring and eventually got to the southern end of 90 mile beach, where there was a handy camping ground. We decided to go on a bus tour the next day as 90 mile beach is only really suitable for 4WD's not 20 year old Toyota Hiace's with leaky sunroofs ! 90 Mile beach is, as the name suggest a very long stretch of beach, which is classed as a highway, although not many insurance companies will cover you if you drive along it !. Funnily enough it's not 90 miles long, it is however 90 km's long, so somewhere along the way it got confused but the name stuck. The bus collected us at 0930 and we began the tour by driving up highway one towards Cape Reinga, our Maori driver and guide pointing out all the interesting places. It was unfortunately a really miserable day, really wet and windy, but made us even more thankful that we wern't driving. We eventually got to Cape Reinga, it is more or less the top of the North Island and also where the Tazman and Pacific Oceans meet. You can actually see where the oceans converge as it creates a messy swell just out from the Cape. Apparantly the Tazman sea is known as the male sea due to it's roughness ! and the Pacific as the female due to it's more placid nature. Cape Reinga is also the most sacred place to the Maori as it is where they believe the underworld exists. Whilst looking out at the Oceans I spotted a pod of dolphins swimming right where the oceans met, it was really cool and we stood there mesmerised. The coach then took us down a stream onto 90 mile beach. Just before the beach are huge sand dunes about 50m tall. The bus came equiped with sledges so we spent a fun half an hour sledging down the dunes !. We then carried on down 90 mile beach with the driver spending most of the time in the shallow water ! Apparantley they have car, horse and sand yacht racing along the beach and now also have an annual run along the beach. It was really beautiful and in the summer must be even more so. We got back to the campsite at about three so set off to Kerikeri where we planned to stay. It hadn't stopped raining and due to our leaky sunroof were reduced to driving with our coats and hats on to try and keep dry. We found the campsite and decided to splash out and got a chalet. Although the van has bee great it was really nice to have some space to relax in. We had a great nights sleep.