Adventures in Becoming a Caniwi

Northland

This trip was a 4 day adventure driving north along both the east and west coasts of the Northland. Laurel & I packed up Layla, & smiled to ourselves wondering if she would last the trip and how we would get back if not. Let me mention, she not only did & returned to Auckland but showed us that she enjoys highway driving and all the tight turns offered along the New Zealand highways. Road signs & speed postings, if you can find them, often would have 30km/hr and 100km/hr within a 100ft of each other. Oh and slips, or mudslides as us Canadians would think of were found throughout as well!

So heading north along Motorway 1 our first stop was brief in Whangarei as it was a rainy gloomy day, but plan to come back to this area for all the water activities of snorkelling, sailing, swimming, etc. as it gets warmer.

The following are from a short walk at Memorial Kauri Park walk, ending at Paranui Falls.

Slight detour along the Twin Coast Highway led to Matapouri beach, if only you could hear the roar of the surf to go along with it

Continuing on our way, this is Opua where the car ferry takes cars over to Okiato

On from Opua is Te Haumi, where we enjoyed low tide picking up seashells at sunset

Our first night we stayed in Paihia at a cute little hostel, this is the morning view from the beach at Paihia

Close by is Waitangi, which is historic to the creation of New Zealand. The treaty of Waitangi, between the British and many Maori chiefs took place here at the Hobson house, looking out over to Russell. Amazingly kept grounds and Maori history.... This is one of the war canoes

Paua shell on Maori carvings

Hobson House

View from Waitangi grounds

Maori meeting house built in the 1930s

A spiritual experience in itself, spectacular maori carvings in kauri creating an unbelievable smell

View from Russell, after taking the passenger ferry over. Paihia and Russell were having a jazz festival

The boat Laurel and I oared over on...... haha

Views from 'Dolphin Discovery, Explore NZ bright yellow powerboat' exploring the Bay of Islands, consisting of 144 islands. Both Laurel & I have decided we want to learn to sail and these sailboats made us want to even more. It looked amazing!

Approaching 'Hole in the Rock', but cannot see it yet!

Lighthouse across from Hole in the Rock

Here it comes, there is literally rock all around it with the waves only carving out a hole, that will continue to get bigger and bigger over time.

PIHA

Our day trip out to Piha included Laurel & I, & two of Laurel's friends that have started with her in PICU, Caroline, a Kiwi from Tauranga, & Beth, a Brit. Beth drove these switchback roads in a standard Toyota Yaris, good on her! A whole new appreciation for driving standard.

It was a rainy day and as you can see, did not have to share the beach with anyone. The waves are amazing and apparently quite the currents and rifts to go along with. There is a tv show called Piha rescue and it is a glam downed version of Baywatch where people are rescued on this beach on a daily basis. :) Look forward to coming back when it will be warmer to swim (in the safe zones of course).

Both Muriwai beach (see previous post) & Piha beach are black volcanic ash sand. The western coastline, I am told is the dark side while the eastern is the lighter. Will have to get to that side to check it out.

WHATIPU

This day trip, less than an hour from our place, was with Laurel & Justin to Whatipu, pronounced Fatipu. Wh = F in Maori. This beach was calm and despite the gloomy skies, it stopped raining for us to climb up to the top of the ridge.