Whangarei, North Island, New Zealand

It was now Easter Sunday and we took a stroll around the lakefront, local market and some nice gardens nearby.

On our way out of Rotarua we stopped at the “Gates of Hell Spa”. This smelly sulphurous place had a whole range of hot pools & mud baths. We decided to have a dip in the muddy looking suphuous waters. Wow – it was hot at 40 degrees and was powerful stuff turning my bracelet a lovely tarnished colour! They claim the waters and mud cure all manner of skin conditions…probably stripped by the acid!

From Rotarua we were still heading North to the Bay of Plenty. The biggest town here is Tauranga. We stopped for some really good fish & chips by the waterfront and then carried on for the night to try to find another DOC site in the dark (not easy now the clocks had gone back and it was getting dark at 6pm). There was no sign of this site as we drove along a narrow gorge road looking for it (glad I couldn’t see the lack of crash barrier till we re-drove it in the morning!) After some helpful directions we finally located it and found that it was completely mobbed. Tomorrow was Easter Day and there were plenty of Kiwi families out with their tents, cars & vans and, of course, the dog. We luckily squeezed into a remaining space and in the morning discovered it was another beautiful spot to sit & watch the river & tents being packed up.

To see the steep Karangahake gorge properly we drove back up in the daylight and followed a really nice walk along the old goldmine tunnels with “windows” in the rock that they used to toss the waste rock into the river when digging the tunnels. So clean & peaceful now but back then it must have been a noisy & destructive process, wreaking havoc on the native countryside.

The gorge was near to the little town of Waihi, which we drove through on our way to the Coromandel peninsula. We stopped for a quick look at the hole they’ve dug here in search of the gold stuff. Well, that was a surprise – it’s HUGE! An enormous open cast mine that’s still active today.

Some busy & winding roads later we arrived at our campsite for the night, this one was much easier to find & we made it in daylight. The Kiwi families had all gone back home now after the Easter weekend and peace had returned to the lovely Wentworth valley so we had a nice quiet walk up to the nearby waterfall. The sunshine was still with us and the nights seem a lot warmer again as we’ve moved northwards.

We moved on in the morning after some rainfall overnight had freshened the place up. The coastline here was very impressive. We drove up to the car park for the “Cathedral Rock” and the view over to the islands in the distance was hazy in the sunshine but reminiscent of the rocky isles of Halong Bay or Thailand’s Krabi with green volcanic lumps sitting in the blue ocean. There was a nice little coastal walk along to a sandy bay with a big lump of limestone that’s formed an archway with the sea washing in at high tide. After our walk we headed down to Hot Water Beach; there’s a campsite here where we hired a spade and got our instructions to go about an hour either side of high tide and dig ourselves a hot pool! Great we thought – and so with another hundred or so people we stood about on the shoreline in the semi-darkness waiting to see if the surf would die down enough for us to dig a hole, but no luck, the surf was up and it was a windy night where the sea just didn’t go out far enough. We could feel the boiling heat in one small patch of sand but when a couple of bus groups turned up there was no chance! So much for our hiring a shovel then.

We decided to push on up towards Auckland but first we wanted to cross the Coromandel peninsula and drive back down the other side. A gravel road wound it’s way up over the mountain and down to the west coast. There were lovely green ferns & trees along the way & views out over the coast. When we rejoined the tarmac road it carried on winding down and round the big bay of the Firth of Thames, it was a really nice route but before we knew it we were in the Auckland rush hour and running out of fuel! The traffic was grinding to a halt on the highway so we took an exit into town and just as we were looking a bit flummoxed about how to find a fuel station a lovely Auckland lady wound her window down & asked if she could help. How nice was that! She pulled over to give us directions and without a hitch we filled up & rejoined the highway heading north. We made it to Waiwere for the night and one of our best campsite views ever, looking right over the beach we watched the sunset colours reflecting on the clouds. The real reason for staying here was that there were thermal pools to make up for our lack of hot water on Hot water Beach and we spent the next morning soaking in the hot pools and with a lot less sulphur smell than Rotarua!

More beautiful coastline as we wound our way northwards towards the Bay of Islands. We stopped off briefly at artsy Matakana & were most impressed with their architect sculptured public loos! Later our campsite for the night was in amongst the sand dunes at Uretiti where there are some amazing white sand beaches – still, a bit cold for swimming but there were some brave souls in the water anyway.

Our next stop was Whangerai, a small town on a river with an outlet to the sea. The campsite was up on the hill surrounded by greenery and a short walk away from the shops & a great wee coffee shop called “Narnia”. (and yes, you did have to go through a wardrobe to enter it.) There were some caves nearby to go exploring & M had the sense to wear his sandals as the cave floor was filled with water – S opted out not wanting to get her feet wet. The rocks are sculpted by water and there were some glowworms in there too.

Via | TravelPod

Popularity: 1%