New Zealand's Northland

Hello Mates,

I am tardy in getting all of our adventures captured and posted.  Turning into a real slacker these days!  😉So in an effort to get caught up, we'll be posting few different blogs covering a the sights and experiences we've been having over the past several weeks.  After we made a stop in Auckland for some city time, we began our journey further up the north island.  We followed the Twin Coast Discovery Hwy to white sandy beaches and towns with names like Whangarei.  We were in search of sunshine and warmer temperatures as this part of New Zealand has a subtropical climate.  

Our first night in Tutukaka turned out to be one of historic importance.  We endured a subtropical storm that dumped 8 inches of rain in less than 12 hours accompanied by huge wind gusts.  Turns out, we had just slept (sort of) through a 500 year storm which caused significant flooding.  Travel into and out of the area where we were staying was limited as many roads were covered with "slips" or landslides.  So much of New Zealand can only be accessed via one road so any type of damage means you just have to be patient until repairs can be done.


Beautiful coastlines with zero development are the norm
 

Gnarly Puriri trees grow old along the windblown coast

Still no sunshine on the horizon

 
Flood waters race across Rainbow Falls.  This river flowed 20 feet out of its banks.

Since we had been to the furthest tip of New Zealand's south island, we just had to get to the northernmost part of New Zealand.  So off we went to visit Cape Reinga, an epic place where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean crash into each other.  This place is always windy and on the day we were there, gusts reached 90 mph.  

Cape Reinga

Maori's believe that the spirits of their dead enter the sea here at Cape to go to the underworld. 

Giant sand dunes form the western side of this bay. 

Speaking of giant sand dunes, we found a place on the coast where you can rent sand boogie boards to surf the dunes.  Unfortunately, with the high wind gusts, we could barely keep our eyes open due to all the sand that was blowing about.  So, we didn't get to surf them much to our disappointment.
 
This sand dune was at least 50 feet high.

From the Cape,  we headed south to 90 mile beach, a glorious stretch of untouched sand & ocean wilderness.  Other sightseer's were few and far between on this wind blown day so we had this stretch of beach all to ourselves. 
 
90 Mile Beach on the North Island

Our next stop is the Bay of Islands, one of New Zealand's most popular destinations.  The sun has begun to peek out between the rainy squalls providing us with multiple rainbows.  On some days we've seen a dozen different rainbows..........how lucky are we!!! 

Rainbow magic always makes us smile.

We hope this finds you staying well and some rainbow magic has found its way to your heart.

Stay Curious!

Cheryl & Dan

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