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Frostly start as the sun rising over Mount Ruapehu on SH4 - my favourite road in New Zealand!

9 hours 'up the road' from Wellington was Orewa Beach




Pakiri Beach - our first camping stop!





Mangawhai Heads. Not sure if this happened naturally, but Jo liked the look of this!

Plenty of Pampas Grass to growing all over the place next to some beautiful beaches!


Waipu Cove sweeping away into the distance


Ocean Beach

Taurikura - a great spot to have a spot of lunch!

The view from Paihia across the water to Russell

The start of our Bay of Islands trip

Russell

Joanna loaded with 'staples'- Latte & Ginger Beer!


Dolphins swimming next to our boat!

Somehow we ended up on a trip with the UK Caravan & Camping Club on their New Zealand Tour. We passed a camping ground the following day and saw loads of identical campervans, which were all numbered!





Heading to Hole in the Rock!

Lining ourselves up prior to the drive through!

The lighthouse & old keepers house at Cape Brett

Making our way to Urupukapuka Island and Ortehei Bay


View from the top of Urupukapuka Island and across the Bay of Islands




Just can't get enough of watercraft - heading from Paihia to Russell on the car ferry!


Sunset in Russell

View from the Flagstaff over Russell

Joanna under the Flagstaff

New Zealand's oldest church in Russell

Nathan next to a pair of wakas at Waitangi


Joanna standing in the waka shed!

Waitangi Treaty House & Marae

Some of the amazing Maori carvings in the Marae


The New Zealand flag, the United Tribes Flag & the Union Jack flying at Waitangi

Quick stop & another amazing beach at Matauri Bay


On Waipapakauri Beach looking up 90 Mile Beach. Unfortunately due to the tides, this is as far as the Scooby could go!


Cape Reinga lighthouse

Where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific!





Final shot of the Lighthouse before we started the 1100km journey south to Wellington



Having a bit of fun on the Te Paki Sand Dunes

The most amazing beach in New Zealand - Rarawa Beach!!

Enjoying a brew on the Rarawa Beach


White sands and turquoise water at Rarawa Beach under bright blue skies!

Another ferry! This time from Kohu Kohu to Rawene across the Hokianga Harbour Narrows

A Giant Kauri Tree

On Baylys Beach, again due to the tides we were unable to explore the beach any further...

...although I did show Jo how good the car was going round in circles!


After following the signs, which ran out after a single junction (a typical occurrence in New Zealand) we finally made it to Piha!




Jo managed to take these shots of Piha, while I was trying to fix our cigarette lighter, which had fallen apart behind the dash! This also caused a fuse to blow and stopped the heater from working too! Not particularly helpful when it was pouring with rain too! All was sorted and we started our onward journey to Hamilton...
Labels: bay_of_islands, baylys_beach, cape_reinga, mt_ruapehu, new_zealand, northland, paihia, photos, russell, sh4, urupukapuka_island, waitangi