(2015/01/07) …after the night and the thoughts being a child again at this lovely campground it was time to go north. 90 mile beach, sand boarding on the dunes and camp a night near Cape Reinga. A sign with “Tourist Route” let us turn off the H1 and drive more close to the coast and might lead us to some sights, because we saw a nice mountain skyline in the distance. My female co-driver wasn’t able to read something while driving because otherwise she get sick, so i hoped to have some luck with random sights with the signs. After passing many areas and fields where they sell property and houses we made a stop at One Tree Point. One Tree Point had blue signs which where used for sights?, but this was a small village. Anyways we stopped there at the bay and ate some sandwiches for lunch. What a beautiful view, you would think? No! They placed an refining factory in a beautiful bay area, i’m sure that all creatures of Middle-Earth would start a war against it. The way back to the Highway 1, along the “Tourist Route” passed more and more property selling advertisements forced me fore a stop and have a look at my electronic version (aka eBook) of my Lonely Planet.
The Abbey Caves, near Whangerei where almost on our route and was now our next stop. It was a bit more disappointing that these caves where small and more for semi speleologists as for tourists, but the short hike around the caves with a beautiful view which reminded me more being in the German/Austrian Alps. Pah! Exactly like being in our Alps. A cowpat on the green grass between the flowers let me felt at home. The only weird thing what reminded us not being home, was the appearing of some strange trees and huge ferns. Based on the App Wikicamps which is really awesome for finding campgrounds i choose an DOC (Department of Conversation) Campground, because they should be very good (based on tellings from some campers we met) and with $6 also cheap.
While crossing Whangerei we followed the signs to the falls with the same name and hiked the short way down to the base. It was a really refreshing air with the spray of the falls and my questions for hiking a bit the river down was answered with an smoking pause and to slow down in Fiji style. The short rest was really nice down there, but i started to wonder a bit because we always had some smoking stops and she didn’t looked in that bad shape. Anyways, to cool down and chill there was very pleasant before we got back to the car and our way about 120km north to the Puketi Forest. Finally arrived there, i started a fire, we cooked dinner and finished the day at the fire while i was writing a new blog entry…