New Zealand - Ahipara to Auckland
Ahipara to
Auckland
Day 7 - December 18th 2008
So, we were back and forth about going to Ninety Mile Beach, which is the farthest north you can go in New Zealand. We were going to go just to say we went to the tip of the country, but aside from that nothing really stood out making this a “must do”, so we decided to head south from Ahipara to check out the west coast forests and see some giant Kauri trees!
some pretty northland New Zealand landscape photos ;)
We took a car ferry, the Hokianga Ferry, to save us some time as we headed south to the Waipoua Forest on the west coast. Below is the view from the ferry crossing the Hokianga Harbour ;)
Continuing south, we passed Opononi, the giant sand dunes that are popular for sand tobogganing. Unfortunately it was out of our way to go tobogganing so instead we took some lovely pictures of the Hokianga Harbour meeting the Tasman Sea! Ahhh...
I know, I take a lot of photos of myself at the beaches, hehe, but I can’t resist - I LOVE these gorgeous beaches!! ^*^
After driving a gorgeous winding road through the Waipoua Forest, we made it to the Giant Kauri Trees! These trees are comparable to the Giant Sequoias back in California and very, very old. It was amazing being in the presence of trees that existed well before our time..
After check out the Giant Kauri Trees, we went for a hike at the Trounson Kauri Park and saw the New Zealand pigeon, which is a GIANT green and white gorgeous bird, certainly not your normal pigeon and a wonderful sighting! On the way, we saw our very first Kiwi sign (eeeee!!) since we were in Kiwi territory. We absolutely cannot wait to see one for ourselves, but they are nocturnal, flightless and rarely seen so.. maybe we’ll get lucky ;)
After the hike we trekked down to Auckland and stayed the night. Now that we’ve seen most of the northland, we’re getting antsy to head south and check out the South Island.
More to come featuring Cathedral Cove, a spontanious ZORBING experience in Rotorua and our most adventurous experience yet; WAITOMO CAVES which was a 7 hour adrenaline rush caving experience that certainly felt like expedition caving!! We descended 328 feet (100 meters) and that was just the beginning :P
Cheers!
Jenn
Day 7 - December 18th 2008
So, we were back and forth about going to Ninety Mile Beach, which is the farthest north you can go in New Zealand. We were going to go just to say we went to the tip of the country, but aside from that nothing really stood out making this a “must do”, so we decided to head south from Ahipara to check out the west coast forests and see some giant Kauri trees!
some pretty northland New Zealand landscape photos ;)
We took a car ferry, the Hokianga Ferry, to save us some time as we headed south to the Waipoua Forest on the west coast. Below is the view from the ferry crossing the Hokianga Harbour ;)
Continuing south, we passed Opononi, the giant sand dunes that are popular for sand tobogganing. Unfortunately it was out of our way to go tobogganing so instead we took some lovely pictures of the Hokianga Harbour meeting the Tasman Sea! Ahhh...
I know, I take a lot of photos of myself at the beaches, hehe, but I can’t resist - I LOVE these gorgeous beaches!! ^*^
After driving a gorgeous winding road through the Waipoua Forest, we made it to the Giant Kauri Trees! These trees are comparable to the Giant Sequoias back in California and very, very old. It was amazing being in the presence of trees that existed well before our time..
After check out the Giant Kauri Trees, we went for a hike at the Trounson Kauri Park and saw the New Zealand pigeon, which is a GIANT green and white gorgeous bird, certainly not your normal pigeon and a wonderful sighting! On the way, we saw our very first Kiwi sign (eeeee!!) since we were in Kiwi territory. We absolutely cannot wait to see one for ourselves, but they are nocturnal, flightless and rarely seen so.. maybe we’ll get lucky ;)
After the hike we trekked down to Auckland and stayed the night. Now that we’ve seen most of the northland, we’re getting antsy to head south and check out the South Island.
More to come featuring Cathedral Cove, a spontanious ZORBING experience in Rotorua and our most adventurous experience yet; WAITOMO CAVES which was a 7 hour adrenaline rush caving experience that certainly felt like expedition caving!! We descended 328 feet (100 meters) and that was just the beginning :P
Cheers!
Jenn