The alarm went off at 06:30, just minutes after I woke. We got up straight away not allowing our eyes to close again. Into the shower and dressed and packed and ready for breakfast by 07:15. It felt good to know the whole day was ahead of us waiting to be explored.
At breakfast we were recognised by the bistro lady, who enquired as to how we had spent last week. She was very chatty and said it was good to see us back in the youth hostel, which gave me a warm feeling. Yesterday when we checked in the girl at reception recognised us too and for a while we felt that we weren't anonymous strangers as we have been now for some time. I said to Ian whilst in Tonga that returning to Auckland would feel like returning home and in a way I'm right. Perhaps it's just the idea of returning 'somewhere' but I think that Auckland is a special place. For such a large city it is remarkably clean and traffic free. The people are so friendly and we don't stand out as not being locals. We had a big cooked breakfast to see us on our way. Three poached eggs on toast each!
By 08:30 we were on the road bound for the Far Northland. It took us just 3 hours to reach Kawakawa where we had a bite of cake and a cup of tea in a small friendly cafe. The journey to this point was wonderful. There is so much to look at, the views of the rolling green grass covered hills, plentiful evergreen forests and glimpses of sea and islands. The roads travel up and down and are fairly twisty in places yet the condition of them is excellent and there is very little traffic. There are cows in fields and a few sheep but not surprisingly no lambs! Just out of Acukland, with Auckland bridge still in full view, the green land was everywhere. We drove to Paihia in the Bay of Islands and had 'Helen prepared roast lamb with stuffing on herb and garlic bread rolls, accompanied by potato salad' on the beach overlooking the bay. The we took to scenic road passing through a golf course which provided wonderful views of the bay and took us past Waitangi, where the treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 between the Crown and some of the Maori chiefs. This area was marked as being a kiwi habitat but unfortunately we couldn't see any. Our journey took us up past Doubtless Bay and we arrived at Kaitaia youth hostel at 18:00, having stopped for numerous photographs on route, including the Haruru Falls near Waitangi.
The land this afternoon was mostly undulating smooth green hills with some trees on them but occasionally I saw hills with grass covered 'steps' on them which looked very picturesque. Sadly there weren't any suitable places to stop so I had to sacrifice a photograph of them.
We had a quiet meal in a steakhouse in the evening and on the way to the restaurant I found an area of forest land for sale with 5 year old pine trees in it at a price of NZD 55,000, equivalent to USD 27,500. Ian has always wanted to own a piece of woodland or a field so I thought it ideal for him.
We made a plan to rise early in the morning and get on the road at a sensible time. We should be sandboarding in Cape Reinga before lunchtime and enjoying the largest sand dunes in New Zealand.
We covered 370 kilometres in our journey from Auckland to Kaitaia.
Copyright 2002 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.