Video: Northland Roadtrip

After 5 weeks at Surf N Stay in Whangamata, I was off for a road trip to Northland which took me 8 days. Nicolette from Singapore was my travel companion on the trip. The mission started by picking up Nicolette in a shopping mall in Auckland. Funny thing was that we had never met each other in person before so there was some kind of double magic of unknown. We had a lot of time to get to know each other on our way to a first stop – lakes Taharoa. Everything went well so after a few jokes we felt like we know each other for ages so lots of fun and excitement about the upcoming adventure. After the lakes, we went north through places like Maunganui Bluff with its stunning coastal views or huge Kauri trees which memory the human history of New Zealand. In a place called Oponini, we run out of gas so we had to sleep on a parking lot and wait till the morning. Gas, coffee and muffin and let’s go up. Rainy day took us to Kaitaia to check some history about Northland and then we decided to stay in UTEA camp in the middle of 90 mile beach. Sandstorm, wild horses and loneliness somewhere at the end of the world – dreamy atmosphere. The next day Giant Sand Dunes and sandboarding.

Lake Taharoa

Maunganui Bluff Views

Huge Kauri Trees

Te Matua Ngahere

Rainy Days

Private Property Keep Out

Road trip view

UTEA Camp 90-mile beach South View

Sand Texture

UTEA Camp

UTEA Camp 90-mile beach North View

UTEA Camp 90-mile beach sunset

Wild Horses

Bush in the Water

Army of Oystercatchers

Friendship of Maori and White People

Desert in New Zealand

Giant Sand Dunes

Sandboarding

Cape Reinga

We came quite late to Cape Reinga so we decided to visit it on the next day in the morning as well. Cape Reinga – a sacred place of Maori culture, the place where souls leave this world. This place feels really mysterious. There are its typical lighthouse and natural wonder – two oceans meeting point where swells interfere and create a stunning view of colliding waves. You can watch this forever!

A little story from that night. Even if we wanted to be there just for an hour or so during the evening we had to take part in a search for an senile old Chinese woman, mother of a guy who left her alone up on the parking lot and went down with a wife. The old women disappeared during the time they were down by the lighthouse. We were searching for an hour but no signs of her. After two hours staying in our car on a parking lot, the police came to tell us that she was found 20 km far from the place. She spoke no English and was disoriented. How did she get there? Noone knew. 😀

Cape Reinga Lighthouse

Cape Reigna Lighthouse

Cape Reigna Lighthouse and ocean meet

Cape Reigna West Bay

Jan Vitek

Tapotupotu Bay

Tapotupotu Bay Campsite

Way down south

After the Cape Reinga and some hikes around we went down to Doubtless Bay which I chose just by its poetic name. Next stops were Rainbow Falls and old Maori village which was slightly disappointing because we expected a nice village but instead of that there were few buildings not in a really good condition.

Going around Bay of Islands we visited the first capital of New Zealand – Russel. A calm nice village with nice cafes and pubs with an easygoing atmosphere. Next stop of our journey was place called The Farm. It is hostel/farm/ecolodge where you can meet many travelers and do many stuff from feeding cows and riding on a motorbike. We stayed two nights because of a cool atmosphere and went for a walk, surf and kayak. Last stop of our trip was in a city called Whangarei. Almost in the middle of the city, there are huge and beautiful falls called Whangarei Falls.

We traveled through Northland during New Zealand’s autumn (beginning of June). The weather was still nice with colder nights but the absence of crowds on tourist spots was priceless. The trip was awesome. Check the video!