New Zealand travel update 28 March 2001, Dargaville, Northland

We have been in New Zealand two weeks today and so far, so good. It is just simply beautiful – it doesn’t quite have the forty shades of green that Ireland lays claim to, but it looks pretty close.

Our first few days were spent in Auckland staying with Dave’s second cousin Marlisa, and it was there that we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by having a Guinness or two!

We are now back on the road again, this time in a rented Toyota estate/station wagon. It is costing us the equivalent of about 6 pounds per day so hopefully it will take us the distance! Our very rough plan is to spend a month in the North Island, and a month in the South Island before we make any longer term decisions.

From Auckland we headed north up the East Coast and apart from a little bit of rain here a there, managed to find some beautiful, sunny campsites with good walks and great swimming/snorkelling beaches – Martin’s Bay and Whangarei.

Although it is the start of autumn here it seems the Kiwis’ Indian summer is hanging on for as long as possible. Our only bone of contention at the moment is the dew (no puns please). The early morning dew makes it difficult to pack the tent away, but we are coping. We borrowed a six-man tent from Marlisa for the times that we spend more than one night at any particular place. It is really huge and like a house compared to our little two-man tent.

The Bay of Islands was our next stop and it was just stunning. We stayed in the small town of Russell for 3 nights and just loved it. We went sailing for a day on a 50ft racing yacht and had a fantastic time. It is Dave’s dream to own a boat, and a sailing vessel of some description is necessary to enjoy New Zealand at its best. No no doubt that will be one of our first purchases as even Shaz enjoyed the sailing! Mind you most days you will find us glued to estate agents windows just in case we spot the home dreams are made of, or the bargain of the century!

From the Bay of Islands we headed to Ninety Mile Beach where we were back to enjoying sundowners and great sunsets on the beach. It seems that even our daily lunch stops are getting more beautiful by the day – we stop at beach sides, lakesides or in forests. We also managed to make it to Cape Reinga at the tip of the North Island where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea.

We are now working our way back down the West Coast towards Auckland and plan to be in The Corromandel on the east by the weekend.

Hope this finds you all well, until next time…