Northland!!

Day 9 (Wednesday, May 26)
Today was another day of classes and as soon as the snarky French Graphics lecturer finished, we zoomed out to pick up the rental car and load up to get on the road. Apparently, we timed our exit from Auckland to match perfectly with rush hour. I made PB&J sammitches in the car as we crawled northward, over the bridge and finally said goodbye to the Sky Tower. It was practically dark at this point so we only drove for another hour or so to find a campground. That way, we wouldn't miss the majestic landscape. We set up camp next to a lake and cooked a pasta dinner on a moonlit beach. We topped off the meal with some yummy ginger beers (it's becoming an epicurean staple!)

Day 10 (Thursday, May 27)
We spent a while exploring the rocks along the coast. Read: Jeremy climbed all over them and Siena tried to figure out their geologic content and take pictures. Since it was low tide, they were climbable for quite a ways out to sea. When we returned to the car, we were greeted by a bunch of ducks swarming our car. They eventually started circling the car...but other than an ominous start to the day, nothing else came of it. We drove into Warkworth to pick up groceries and more propane gas for the trusty cooking stove that has supplied many a meal during our adventures. We started driving west and then north toward the Kauri forest on the west coast of Northland. We arrived after dark (it's easy to do when the sun goes down at 5:30!) at a Holiday Park. Holiday Parks are campgrounds with nice facilities, such as laundry, a kitchen, sometimes a tv. This one in particular had a TRAMPOLINE. We made sure to jump to get our money's worth. And after we had tuckered ourselves out with the trampoline, we discovered something even cooler shrouded in darkness...a ZIPLINE!! Lots of fun :)

Day 11 (Friday, May 28)
After a filling breakfast of pancakes and eggs and an encounter with a couple speaking a language I could not recognize, we set out to the Kauri Forest a few km away. We strolled leisurely through the leering green shroud of ancient trees, some of which were over 1000 years old! There were a couple audio accompaniments that gave some background on some of the really gigantic trees. Driving around nearby, we stumbled upon an amazing rainbow overlooking fields of animals at pasture. The rest of the day was spent primarily in the car, driving all the way up to Cape Reinga (the northernmost point of NZ). We raced the sun and arrived at the Giant Te Paki Sand Dunes with enough time to explore and toboggan down the sand slopes a few times. I was astounded at how cool the dunes were. I've seen sand dunes, but I've never seen sand dunes like these. The electric sky lit the dunes up with seismic splendor. I couldn't stop caressing the compressed sand and observing how compacted the sand really gets. This experience finally clarified how crossbeds form in sand dunes, a concept that I had heretofore reasoned inconceivable. Thank you, Te Paki Sand Dunes for furthering my geologic understanding. With clothes caked in sand, we hurried back to the car to make it up the lighthouse at Cape Reinga before sundown. The road to the cape was a maddening tease that kept going and going. We knew we were getting close when we could see the ocean on both sides of us. At the tip, we walked down the path to the lighthouse, that was ablaze with self-automated glory, and saw where the Tasman Sea (west side) and the Pacific Ocean (east side) join. You could tell because there were giant waves in the middle of the water.


Day 12 (Saturday, May 29)
I drove a lot of the way back south on beautiful windy roads through endless hills dotted with sheep of varying nakedness (sheared or super fluffy). We stopped in a couple bays and ended up eating lunch at Taupo Bay. We continued south along the Bay of Islands, taking a ferry at some point and then driving along meandering roads, pulling over at sunset to soak in the view. As the light faded, we drove through some janky roads to end up at Kawakawa, a sleepy town (pop 1300) that's home to very unique and interesting public toilets. They were designed by Austrian Architect Freidrich Hundertwasser in the late 90s when Hundertwasser was living nearby Kawakawa, a NZ citizen since 1986. We had read a lot about these toilets so we made sure to check them out (all the way out). Afterwards, we stopped into a little cafe that advertised $1 garlic bread for a quick snack and after learning of our crazy intention to camp outside, the owner surprised us with free hot cocoa :) (to offset the inevitable hypothermia, perhaps). We set up camp yet again near a body of water and went to sleep after a quick pasta snack.


Day 13 (Sunday, May 30)
After efficiently packing everything up, we headed out to see Kawiti Caves, advertised to have glow worms. We had a private tour of the compact, yet interesting cave complete with limestone stalactites, stalagmites, a creek with eels, and a LOT of glow worms on the ceiling. Fun facts: the glowy part is actually the butt of the glow worm (the glow is from an enzyme released in accordance with their metabolism, shining brighter when they are hungrier). The whole worm is about the size of the match (with the red part of a match corresponding to the glowing butt). They live in the moist ceilings of caves and lower strings coated in sticky saliva to catch insects such as mosquitoes. Their life cycle is about 11 months, most of which is in the larval (glowy) phase. Once the worms go into their cocoon for 2 weeks, they emerge and have three days to mate and lay eggs before dying. There was a section of the cave called "the Milky Way" and a lot of other parts where the worms were pretty densely packed and shining very brightly. Just outside the cave, we walked through an area of huge limestone rocks jutting upward. Back at the car, we continued south, eventually coming to Whangarei, where we headed to the Whangerei Heads to do one last bit of hiking before heading back to Auckland. The drive back to Auckland was about two hours filled with lots and lots of pretty pastoral views.