December 25: Together with (back then) neighbours Tim, Florian, and Phil, I set out to the Bay of Islands. It's nice there, but we head further north.
December 26: We stay at the North Wind Lodge in Henderson Bay, about 30km south of Cape Reinga. Very nice backpacker, operated by an elderly german couple. Majority of guests speaks german as well. At night, we try to go fishing off the rocky beach, but no luck; instead, almost get stuck as tide comes in.
December 27: We set out to a very nice hike near the Cape; okay, it starts off and finishes on cow pastures, but inbetween: bush, beach, sand dunes, wild coast, giant sand dunes, more coast, swamp, and much more bush. Awesome! Very impressive wilderness, and besides our little group nobody's out there.
December 28: We visit the Cape itself, and afterwards go sand boarding and surfing at Ninety Mile Beach. The Cape itself lacks sensational or spectacular revelations, but hey: it's one more thing to tick off on our "tourists must do"-list!
December 29: We cruise south to Hokianga Harbour. Premiere for me: flat tyre on the road, must change tyre, and get a new one in Kaitaia. Seems I went too rough over Ninety Mile Beach the day before... As if that's not enough: a speed camera catches me at 61 kph in a 50 kph area. Speeding with spare tyre on? I'm living on the edge, that's for sure! Day gets better afterwards, we have a nice backpacker with loads of german tourists, as usual.
December 30: Albeit bad weather, we set out to see some massive Kauri trees in Waipoua Forest. And indeed, the trees are massive, but also is the rainfall. So we don't spend too much time appreciating nature and head back to Hokianga. Weather gets better later, more hanging out outside.
December 31: We cross over to the East Coast, to lovely Moureeses Bay near Whananaki, north of Whangarei. We meet a bunch of nice people there and for once there's more Kiwis than Germans around. There's a hell of a New Year's Party and I'm very glad there's no pictures of it!!
January 1: Hangover day. Not much more to say. Hanging out at the beach, trying to recover.
January 2: We leave Northland, head back to Auckland, where we pick up Katie and go on for the Coromandel. We stay in Tairua at the east coast, in a backpacker with nice location but somehow grumpy hosts. Hmm, not so nice... Strange: not so many Germans there?! But beautiful views into the harbour inlet:
January 3: The east coast beaches of the Coromandel are to be explored. After hanging out at Tairua itself, we head on to Hot Water Beach, where we (among literally 100 other tourists) dig a little hole in the sand to create our own hot pool. And yes, it's really "hot water" and not "lukewarm water" beach. We proceed then to Cathedral Cove, a very nice beach!! Bit crowded, but it's worth the 30 min walk!
January 4: After all that hanging around the last days, it's time for some hiking action. Unfortunately, only Flo has the same opinion, the others are more of the hang-around-type. So we do the Pinnacles Track in the morning that I have done before, but this time it's all the way to the top and in high-speed-mode, too. In the afternoon, we take on some of the walking tracks in the Broken Hills that cross through old gold mines in part. We didn't find gold, only glow worms and mud. A lot of mud.
January 5: That's been it! We drive back to Auckland, pick up Gabby at the Airport (who certainly had a great time in spanish winter?!), and look very much forward to going to work on the upcoming Monday.
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