Kauri forests and the West Coast

Tuesday 24 Mar Fine, sun and cloud 21C Drove 297km

Today, we spotted the German 1st Mechanised Tourist Brigade. The convoy was proceeding down the road in near identical motorcaravan emblazoned with their names on a sticker on rear of each van. 'Marlene und Helmut' and then 'Gisela and Eric' followed by a further 4 more. We have met a lot of tourists whilst we have been driving around, we are a mixed bunch. Apparently, Australians make up 40% of the tourists in NZ and we have met quite a few, they are very chatty as are the New Zealanders we've spoken to. The British, and there are lots of them, are sometime chatty too. We've seen a few Americans, lots of Dutch and now the Germans too.

After being woken by a lorry, we got up and left Warkworth quite early. The temperature in the morning was only about 9C.

Back on the SH1 we headed north into, appropriately, Northlands. Stopping briefly at Waiwhui to take a photo of an exotic cafe we continued to Wellsford and then Brynderwyn, which sounds rather Welsh to me. Here, we turned off onto the SH12 toward Dargaville. The road passed through miles of farmland, with sheep, cattle and maize in abundance. Once through Ruawai, the road follows the large Wairoa River up to Dargaville. From this small town, we headed north with the Tutamoe Range to our right.

After Kaihu, we turned off to visit the Trounson Kauri Park. The park is well laid out and has its own campsite attached. The walkway through the Kauri grove is well signed and informative. The grove, saved by a man called Trounson in the 1920s, is full of mature and young Kauri. After the excitement of seeing a Siamese tree the other day, we say lots more today, indeed we saw at least one quadruplet. The sheer scale of these trees has to be seen to be believed, they are very difficult to photograph.

After leaving Trounson and following another gravel road for 10km, we rejoined the main road and entered the Waipoua Forest. This forest is regenerating and covers thousands of hecares of hilly and mountainous countryside. Well inside the forest on a winding road, we came to the Tane Mahuta giant kauri tree. This tree named 'God of the Forest is 1200 years old and rises 18 metres before its first branches. The branches are covered in epiphygtes. After walking back to the car, we stopped for a 'toastie' at the mobile cafe parked in the carpark.

From here the road carried on to the coast at Omapere and Opononi on the southern side of Hokianga estuary and harbour. On the northern shore are giant sand dunes. We followed the coast along to the small ferry port of Rawene, a delightful little place. Having parked the car in the ferry queue, we wandered down the street to cafe overlooking the water to have a drink. Sitting on their overwater verandah, we could watch out for the ferry coming back across the harbour.

The ferry only takes 15 minutes and coasts NZ$ 14 per car and took us to the northern terminal at Kohukohu. We had considered stopping here, but the road was being ripped up and it didn't look too good!. After skirting the Herekino forest, we reached the coast again near Ahipara at the southern end of 90 mile beach. Not far from there we came to Kaitaia, quite a large town. We tried two motels before we found one with internet access. Not only did it have wifi access it was free too.

Later, we drove into town and found the choice of eating places to be very sparce indeed. Luckily, we saw a placard pointing us down a side street to the 'Bushman's Hut' an excellent steak house. It is highly recommended.