Far North of Northland

I have made it back to Hamilton with my car still in one piece which is pretty amazing considering how much dirt road driving I did.

On Thursday night I went to the This Night Creeps show at Youth Zone then on Friday morning took off for Cape Reinga. It is quite a mission to get there, but when I had barely started leaving Hamilton I was going around a round-a-bout and my car started slipping. I drifted into the curb, but not very hard. Lucky I guess... there was no damage.

Around the North Shore the traffic got really heavy and stayed that way until I was almost to Whangarei. I got to Kaitaia about 4pm and grabbed some fish and chips then drove out to 90 Mile Beach and ate dinner. That spot was the far southern end of 90 Mile Beach, so after that I decided to head a bit farther... About 30 kms up I stopped again and watched the Ninety Mile Beach sunset:




After the sunset I drove to Henderson Bay and slept in my car right by the water. In the morning I started heading north to Cape Reinga. I was there about 11am and the was awesome. I understand now why I took such a long drive up there. It is a really magical place and I guess you just have to be there to understand:




Figuring that I had a lot of time left in the day I started driving around and just exploring. I saw so many beaches. The highlights were
Tapotupotu Bay


Rarawa Beach


Puheke Beach


I stayed at Puheke Beach for the sunset...


Puheke Beach was completely deserted. There were a few fisherman at one end, but the beach is miles long... I walked for a while, then explored the dunes a bit... Rarawa Beach was pretty empty as well, but there were people scattered around it. I would say as far as I could see there were about 10 people...

After the sunset at Puheke Beach I started driving and exploring the coastline for a place to sleep for the night. I should have just stayed there... Eventually I found a place about 50 kms north of Keri which is north of the Bay of Islands.

In the morning I went to Keri for breakfast then went to Paihia and spent the rest of the day there. I did some shopping and some general exploring... The weather started packing in and the forecast was to be worse today, so I got in my car and started driving at about 2:30pm. Stopped in Whangarei to go to the falls, then pushed onwards. Went out to Mangawhai Heads for the sunset. The sunset kinda sucked because of the hills and clouds, but I got this photo:


Hit heavy traffic again just before the North Shore, but through the city of Auckland and the rest of the way to Hamilton to was smooth sailing... Made it back here at a little after 10pm.

Overall, it was a fun last weekend trip in NZ...