Northland Trip 2012

Northland trip 2012 Well we really did not know if we could be bothered writing a blog this trip but we will make a start and see how it goes. We left Kaiapoi on Sunday 20 May and had a great drive up to Blenhiem only marred by hitting a huge stone on the road along the coast. It was about head sized and all I could do was try and get it between the wheels. A huge bang which we stopped and investigated. It fortunately hit a chassis member and missed all the vital bits! Could have been a disastrous start to our holiday. We spent the night at the Blenheim Race Course. A great sunny POP. On Monday we headed to the ferry for our 1045 sailing. We had a relatively smooth crossing and after texting Diana (Val’s old work mate from Welly) we

decided to stay overnight at their beautiful home in Upper Hutt. A great night with Neil and Diana, catching up on families and travels. Over Hayward’s Hill and after a brief stop at Diana’s Bernina shop in Raumati Beach, we headed north and chose the National Park side of the plateau stopping at a DOC camp near

Whakapapa village. Beautiful clear skies and views of Mt Egmont and Ruapehu

and Ngnarahoe at the same time. A bloody cold night. 1 degree inside when we woke! Warm in bed however. The new ereaders are good as you can lie in bed with nothing exposed to read. In the morning we shifted to get in the sun for breakfast before doing a couple of walks with spectacular views of the mountains and to the Tawhai Falls. We headed north thru Taumaranui and Te Kuiti, eventually joining SH1 at Ngaruwahia. Pleasant country but all a bit samey.

We easily found Les (my cousin) and Shirley’s home in Papakura. They have a beautiful old house in the country which they have extensively renovated.

Great night catching up on the families. Up the motorway to a camping ground in Remuera. We are off to

Jersey Boys tonight. The camp in Remuera was very convenient with a bus stop just up the road. Val did a wash and we caught the bus into town around 1600. We filled in time until 1730 when we picked up our tickets for dinner and the Jersey Boys. A Thai dinner was part of the ticket we bought and was great. The show was in the Civic theatre which has been restored to original Egyptian theme. We really enjoyed the show which is the story of the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons told by the members of the band and with plenty of great music. We caught the bus back

to the camp. Very easy! We are now north of Auckland using the Auckland Regional Parks. We spent 1

 night on the end of the Whangaparaoa Peninsular at Te Taruhi Bay in the Shakespear Regional Park where we did a great 5km walk along the cliffs. We are now at the Mahurangi Regional Park at Sullivans Bay. This is a beautiful area and we overlook a nice little beach. We have spent 2 nights here doing some more walking on great well marked tracks with spectacular views of the Hauraki Gulf. The weather today is not that great. Grey with the odd period of rain. It is still warm however around 19 degrees