We waved goodbye to Fiji and returned back to Auckland, this visit would be for longer than our last pit stop.
Picking up the hire car from the airport was straightforward, and with the help of its sat nav, we would get us to our hotel (Crowne Plaza) in the city centre fairly easily... or so we thought!
The sat nav worked off some weird old operating system that did not recognise much (despite interrogating all system settings) putting in street names was impossible.
Getting into the city was easy... once there it became a bit of a challenge.
Auckland is putting in a new underground train system and there are numerous road closures in the city centre, our hotel street was one of the many closed roads, and the detour non existent.... thankfully an iPhone and google maps came to the rescue.
On finally arriving at the hotel, the receptionist remarked that the road detour system often changes, and the signage doesn't help at all, and whilst the locals were used to it, they were equally fed up with it, as its been a work in progress for about 3 years.
A day in Auckland .... what to do.....
We took the Fullers ferry from downtown Auckland to Waiheke Island, the 13 mile trip across the Harauki Gulf was scheduled to take around 40 minutes, with one stop at Devonport.
Devonport, a quaint little place full of pastel coloured wooden houses with a small sandy beach was just 10 minutes across the bay from Auckland, it looked a really nice place to have a explore, if we had a little more time.
A short time after leaving the pretty suburb, the ferry, holding around 250 people, a mix of locals and tourists started to do few odd manoeuvres, cumulating on a large pirouette performed on the water, the captain took to the tannoy, announcing rather firmly that he was heading back to Devonport!!
We had a stowaway on board!!..... one extra passenger had "forced" them self onto the boat, so we would be returning to port and the unwelcome guest would be escorted off the boat, citing health and safety that the ferry had reached its passenger capacity... and some chatter about insurance.
Had anyone been watching from shore they may have found the water dance quite an impressive sight.
As it had taken around 10 minutes before the circling took place, we imagined that the crew were regretfully having to choose straws, the loser being pushed forward to inform the captain that someone had barged past the crew on ticket checking duty, the captain's voice came across very commanding... so whoever let that person onboard.. we wish them the best of luck!!
Back to Waiheke Island - an utterly beautiful place we arrived into, in the warm sunshine.
At the ferry terminal in Matiatia Bay, we boarded the hop on hop off bus, and opted to go to Onetangi Bay, the further point of the island around 8 miles away, and work our way back to the ferry.
Onetangi Bay was worth the trip on its own, as soon as you step off the bus, you are met with a stunning sea scape, a little blue penguin colony was located near by, however we guessed they had gone out on a fishing trip, as no one was about.
This little place was again full of low rise pastel shaded wooden houses and a few nice restaurants, the wow came from the large expanse of bay with its turquoise blue calm waters and long stretch of sandy beach, outstanding... regrettably the house prices were a bit out of our range!!
On our bus return journey, we stopped off at our first winery of this trip, noting the kiwis like to refer to a vineyard more aptly as a winery.
Whilst there were 12 winerys to choose from on Waiheke, Tantalus Winery also had its own micro brewery, so the best of both worlds, and shorty after a brisk walk up a small hill which took us to a lovely viewpoint in the middle of the vineyard, we were all ordered and awaiting the house offerings.
A house "sav" and a tester tray of micro beers with a few sharing nibbles were very much savoured, whilst enjoying the sunshine, and great views over the valley. (NB: Kiwis like to refer to Sauvignon Blanc as plain ole Sav).
Our final bus stop was in Oneroa, the biggest town on the island, (when I say town, I mean it has 2 streets with cafes, bars and boutique shops, and another lovely beach, had there been more time, we would loved to have stayed longer, but the ferry beckoned us back to the main island for the evening.
The following morning we began our 3 hour drive north to Paihia, in the Bay of Islands.
In reality the car journey took us closer to 6 hours, google map drive times don't take into consideration the steep hills and the many hairpin bends both going up and going down pretty green hills, as we headed up to the area known as Northland.
Around half way, we stopped just off Highway 1 for a lunch break, and arrived by chance into the one street town of Waipu. (NB: Waipu in Māori means - water - reddish or brownish in colour).
It was both a surprise and a little disconcerting that this little town had seriously strong links to Scotland, the big welcome sign stating "Ceud Mile Failte", lamp posts with clan names in tartan plaques, a museum of Scottish migration to the area, and signs promoting an upcoming Highland gathering were less than subtle.
We subsequently found most of the settlers in the 1800's were from the McDonald, MacKenzie and McLeod clans, who arrived by boat via Nova Scotia (of course!!).
Arriving at the area known as the Bay of Islands, the views at every turn just as lovely as the last one, as we wound ourselves towards the little costal holiday resort of Paihia, a place that is both chic with a touch of quaint bohemia, the weather was also a hot and sunny 28 degrees.
We found our accommodation of 2 nights relatively quickly, perched above the bay, the panoramic views from the balcony was the deciding factor in choosing the Bay of Islands Beach Houses, and we were not at all disappointed.
Having a full day to explore, we decided to take a trip the other side of the island (Tasman Sea) as we were currently on the South Pacific side.
So off we went with the intention of going from ocean to sea, however the driving had become much quieter and in many places we were the only vehicle for miles.
On getting to the crossroad of Awanui, we spotted a sign for Ninety Mile Beach, a beach that is actually 88 km (55 miles) long but given that name by early settlers who claimed it took 3 days to traverse the beach, with their horses able to to 30 miles per day.
Ninety mile bay leads up to the northern point of the north island.
The conversation went a bit like Thelma and Louise.. "shall we go up to the end of the road...it's a 90 minute drive on a rather desolate road with nothing around for miles- but hey why not.. we've come this far .. what's a few extra miles to Cape Reinga"
We were both agreement, we would likely never be back so the extra effort would likely be worthwhile, and thankfully we were not disappointed.
The drive was incredibly memorable... long stretches of open road, little to no traffic in either direction, it felt remote, we had committed so we kept going.
Jo had read that the last 16 or so miles from when we entered the forest section, was sacred land for the Māori's, and that eating or drinking is not acceptable on the sacred ground, so nibbles were stowed away, to show our respect.
Arriving at Cape Reinga, the place where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, we were so high the cloud had descended, despite this it was still a warm day.
The Māoris refer to the area as Te Rerenga Wairu, which usually has turbulent seas and whirlpools as "the leaping off place" where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld.
A walk of through low cloud of around 800m took us down to the lighthouse.
At the end by lighthouse was one of those sign posts that indicated how far and in what direction other places are, London was showing as 9,735nm, or 18,029km or 11,202 miles.
Near the top end, is Kahokawa Beach, and the famous giant sand dunes of Te Paki Recreation Reserve, the dunes almost 500 ft tall. We had a stroll and watched a few people surf down on bodyboards.... we gave it a bye as we were there too late in the day.
Our next consideration was .. on the drive back down the glorious 90 mile beach road to the Bay Of Islands...... how many cars may we pass... less than 10 was probable.
We also started back on the nibbles 20 miles in....
Next chapter ... we head for Rotorua.
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