Northland
Well I got my computer back (fixed, yay!) yesterday so I can upload pictures and post on here much easier again. This entry is a summary of that last few days.
I left the Bay of Islands and drove North, just about as far North as you can drive without ending up in the Pacific Ocean, Cape Reinga. Not particularly fascinating, but it is pretty cool watching the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea crashing into each other. I’ve never seen anything like that. Along the way up to the cape I stopped at 90 mile beach (which while quite long, isn’t anywhere near 90 miles long) and the Te Paki sand dunes which are immense, stretching inland a very long way. By far the biggest and coolest sand dunes I’ve ever seen.
Next day I headed back down South, this time on the West coast, ending up around the Hokianga bay. I went to the ancient Kauri (tree) forest. Pretty big trees, if I hadn’t been to California and seen the Redwoods and Sequoias (which are both more impressive) in September I may have been more in awe. Even so the forest is a very different atmosphere with tons of really tall fern trees everywhere.
I rounded the day off in grand fashion by sitting in a hammock and watching the sun set over the Tasman across the bay. Pretty spectacular colours…
Continued heading South the next morning, and back across country to the East coast. Ending up in Mangawhai Heads, my last stop before going through Auckland to pick up my Uncle and continuing on Southwards. I started out on the costal cliff walk by the Mangawhai Heads surf beach but I didn’t get that far since the return was impossible at high tide which was fast approaching. It’s awesome coastline along here though even the small part I saw.
After driving through Auckland, picking up my Uncle and being reunited with my laptop we headed South to Rotorua. The thermal hotspot of New Zealand, complete with boiling mud pots, geysers and plenty of sulfur. The town of Rotorua itself isn’t anything special, mainly just catering to all the tourists they get here. We just went to one of the thermal parks around here. I’ve seen thermal features before but never such vivid colourings in the pools. Stunning colours here and the perfect weather here helped bring them out.
All of this Southerly travel is bringing me closer and closer to Mt Doom. I really need to get rid of that ring… ;-)
Tags: New Zealand, Travel
Adam
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