Cape Reinga South down the West Coast

We began our southern leg down the old west coast road stopping at the Wiapoua forest and River Camp. 

This was a delightful stop offering a variety of services in a quite splendid setting.

We very much enjoyed our three day stay at this Maori operated forestry camp.  This stop was highlighted by a wonderful Anniversary  breakfast prepared and hosted by Miss Theresa a very friendly true Maori.

We continued south stopping daily with numerous options for sites along the way, too many to mention.

One of the more colourful stops was the town of New Plymouth. 

South to Wanganui.   

We camped at a free site at a War Memorial located at the top of the hill.  The views were outstanding and we were given access to a free pear orchard.

Along the way we stopped at the Kiwi Bird Sanctuary to actually see a Kiwi bird which are rarely sited as they are nocturnal.

The good news about the north island is that it is very lush and green and very much reminded us much of our own beloved home of British Columbia.  We discovered to our chagrin, the reason for the lushness was the amount of rainfall.  It rained every day for the first month as we drove, crisscrossed, and hiked our way from the top of this island to the bottom.

To the top of the New Zealand World, Cape Reinga

From Russell we made our way along the east coast stopping daily at different free camp sites.  Free camping includes a variety of venue, from parking lots, to open fields and occasional we used Forestry sites for a small fee.  Almost without exception they were neat and tidy and some included shower and toilet facilities.  The critical thing here is to insure that if you go this route, your mode of transport is certified self-contained (toilet and water onboard). 

  It took a couple of weeks of leisurely driving and site seeing before we reached Cape Reinga which was the northern most tip of New Zealand.

 

  

We had a pleasant hike along the escarpment to find one of New Zealands oldest working lighthouses, now efficiently powered by Solar energy.

 A Travel Zodiac pointed us back to Vancouver and reminded us of just how far (6059 Nautical Miles) it was. 

Our New Zealand Adventure Begins

We had already downloaded Free Camping locations using WikiCamps and KiwiCamper & Campermate.  This gave us the outline of a plan.

We headed north to start our circumnavigation of the North Island.  Our goal was to get from the top of the north Island to the bottom of the south Island and see as many places in between as time comfortably allowed.

After spending a couple of days back in Auckland dealing with our return Australian Visa Applications, we drove north to Whangarie.  Located in the Bay of Islands, Whangarie is one of New Zealands premier boating communities and where many cruisers elect to be during cyclone season.  

Our  friends Dave and Wendy Kall (Sv Elysium), whom we met years ago in the Caribbean, were here doing a refit on their lovely Westerly 43.  We enjoyed a couple of fun days hiking and sharing travel stories.  We wish them luck as they continue their sailing adventures and look forward to when next our wakes may cross.

We continued north to Opua to catch the ferry to the quaint picturesque village of Russell now home to our friend, Greg Hoover.  We met Greg in Fiji whilst he was crewing for friends Bev (Sv Kokoh) and Allison (Sv Cachalot) 

Greg is now the proud co-owner, with his partner Pete, of a 5 Star B & B in Russell called Arcadia Lodge.