NZ Far North

It's getting windy up here!

So Jo is an automatic, which is VERY easy driving,  you literally don't have to do anything I don't know how I will ever go back to a manual!

Our road trip in the Far North of New Zealand has been amazing. We left Auckland and drove 335K to a town called Katiana which is just at the bottom of 90 mile beach, a cute little NZ town, with one row of shops and a huge liquor store. The next day we were up bright and early and drove right up to Cape Regina (pronounced ree-anga), we stopped at Spirits bay on the way where Nick had a swim.. there was no way you were getting me in there, it was bloody freezing! 

Contrary to popular belief, Cape Regina is actually only the 2nd most northerly point in NZ and it is where the Pacific Ocean and Tasmin sea meet. The waves are incredible! It was so windy when we were there so they were bigger than usual. It is so weird to see 2 oceans meeting, there are waves going in so many different directions! It looked amazing. There is also a cute little lighthouse there which can apparently be seen for 4 miles. And its tiny!

On the drive back down we made a few stops and went to Te Paki which is the home of some massive Sand Dunes! We suddenly felt like we were in the middle of the dessert. It was so surreal, they were very hard to climb and went on for miles, just rolling hills of sand!

We really wanted to drive on the 90 mile beach but our poor little Nissan would probably die so we just walked on it. Not much to report really, its a pretty big beach that's for sure!

The next day we started driving back down south. The weather was raining and windy on the way back, still quite hot though. We went to a cute little forest called Rainbow falls and saw an amazing waterfall, Kiwis lived in the forest but we didn't see any!

We drove down to the Bay of Islands but the weather had got so bad we decided it would be a bit pointless to stay, which was a shame but we were on quite a tight schedule!

We continued driving south and went to the Waiomi Glow Worm caves. This was pretty dam cool!! Literally thousands of glow worms, they look like stars. When we were deep in the cave we turned off all the torches and the glow of the worms was so powerful you could still see! 

We have nearly driven 1000k already! Lucky our 1lt engine is pretty economical, although we did get lost yesterday and our tank was pretty much empty! That was a bit sketchy... but we survived and stayed in a hostel by the sea last night. The weather has been horrific though, I literally thought we were in a hurricane.

Back in Auckland now and it is a lot less windy! Going further south tomorrow, hitting the Hot Water Beach and on to Rotorua and Lake Taupo.

Sarah

xxx