Up one side and down the other

I was up before 8 to get ready for the boat trip at 8.45. However a bit after 8 I got a phone call from reception saying the trip was cancelled due to bad weather. Fortunately, I hade put the ticket on my room bill so it was just cancelled and I didn’t have to chase a refund.

I decided that instead of staying in Paihia and heading south the next day as planned, I would check out and do a tour of the North instead. Last night one of the comments made by motel-owning friends was that only 16% of tourists to Auckland head North.

On the way up yesterday there were a lot of road works. It seemed every few km there would be a temporary speed restriction and then you’d pass a rood crew of some sort. This certainly adds to the travel time. It was similar for the first half of today’s journey although on the second half I only came across a couple of actual crews. There were still lots of speed restriction zones however, usually because a repair had left part of the road a bit rougher than normal. And once there was a temporary road for a few 100 m where the main road had literally been washed away.

It was overcast most of the time and drizzling on and off so not the best for taking photos. Probably not the best for being out in a boat either.

I decide to have a quick look at Phil’s hotel – the Swiss Chalet – before I left. The rooms were a bit bigger than where I’d stayed but there was no poll, so it would depend on the time of year as to whether this was a better deal or not.

When I left the entire street was filled with trucks re-surfacing the road. I had to wait till they moved a couple to get out of the side street to the main road.

I left about 10:30 and looked at the nearby Harura and Rainbow Falls. The latter one is much higher and there is a 5 minute walk to see it. You an look at the top and also get down to the bottom. I also stopped at a chocolate factory near Kerikeri, as recommended by the receptionist. I had one sample piece but after the amount of chocolate our room consumed during the hockey decided not to buy any. From then on I pretty much drove no stop to Kaitaia, apart from some quick photo opportunities. I headed North on the Twin Coast Discovery Highway. This took me along the east coast, across the top of the island and finally back south, down the west coast.

The east coast route was similar to the trip up from Auckland, with winding roads through the mountains that suddenly descended to the coast. Once again there were lots of road works so travel wasn’t as fast as one would have expected from the distances.

The road was literally metres from the beach at times. Typically there was a sandy stretch between 2 rocky headlands and sometimes some rocky islands in the bay. You felt you needed to take a photo and then there’d be another similar scene around the next bend. There was a series of towns, Mangonui, Coopers Beach, Cable Bay, Taipa and Aurere, along Doubtless Bay. I then swung away from the coast again towards Awanui and Kaitaia. The latter claims to be the most northern town, but I guess it depends how you define a town. Were the others on the map just villages, perhaps? I had a Pie and chips there spilling crumbs over myself and the car.

The next stop was Ahipara, an unintentional detour off the main road. However, it was worth the small extra distance since it is the southern end of the 90 mile beach.

I was then heading south again through Herekino and Broadwood to the ferry at Kohukohu. Unfortunately I missed the 3pm ferry by less than 10 minutes and lost the better part of an hour before the next one. By then I was running low on petrol and had no choice but to pay $2.13 per litre in Omapere.

With a half full tank, I went to the headlands of the Hokianga harbour where I saw a huge sand hill on the north side. From there it was through the Waupoua Forest. The sign for 24kms of winding roads was not an underestimation. It made the winding roads previously seem like gentle, sweeping curves. Most of the curves were so sharp that I rarely got above 60kph and still had to slow down for some corners. It would be a great trail for a motor bike. I did stop and look at the first big Kauri tree – Tane Mahuta – about 5pm. It was only just light enough to photograph. It was impressive though – 13.8 metres around supposedly. From there I headed south as fast as I could, which wasn’t very fast till I cleared the forest half an hour later. I was glad to be out of there while there was still light left.

I had hardly seen anybody all day once I left Kaitaia. It was often 10-20 minutes before I passed the next car and even though I passed through a number of towns, nobody was outside. Usually it was only when I was stopped myself that I saw people. A lot of places I couldn’t even get a radio station.

It was another 50km to Dargaville so I put my foot down. At one stage another car came speeding up behind and looked like it was going to overtake before slowing down. Fortunately I worked out why. A flashing orange light ahead signalled a herd of cows were crossing the road. They were mostly black ones too.

It was dark by the time I arrived. I looked for an Internet café without success and in the end booked into an on site van I found in one of the accommodation guides. I then filled up the tank and had a roast dinner in a pub before heading back to the cabin for the night. This was half of a converted railway carriage – Adequate for one night but not for a longer stay. At least the bed was comfortable and the shower hot and lots of pressure.