A Tropical Paradise

Today Stuart and I packed our bags and headed to the western coast of Northland. We took the scenic route, taking route 14 west over the hilly Tangiteroria range before taking route 12 up the west coast. On the way we briefly stopped at Kai Iwi lakes to stretch our legs, walking along the pure white stretch of beach that rimmed the fresh water lake. Next we visited Waipoua Forest, home to the spectacular and much endangered kauri trees. The kauri, the world's second largest tree, once covered much of New Zealand but due to deforestation only two extensive pockets of these amazing trees remain.

Within Waipoua Forest we visited the four sisters and Te Matua Ngahere, the father of the forest, a tree which has a 16m circumference. The hike to these kauri was pleasant, passing through native forest, which appeared untouched in generations. A variety of bird calls could be heard from the high, vast treetops of these huge trees. We were lucky enough to also visit Tane Mahuta, God of the forest, a 2000 year old tree, which is believed to be the oldest and largest kauri tree in the world.

Afterwards we continued along route 12, where just before the small town of Omapere, the road descended from thick forest into a wide open view across the Tasman sea over to the huge sand dunes of the northern banks. It was a stunning view but we didn't linger as we wanted to catch the car ferry across the strait so that we could avoid a long detour around the bay. We caught the car ferry just in time and made it to our camp for the evening at Ahipara.