Northland Part 1

Entering New Zealand

New Zealand is much “closer” than we thought.  We slept almost 8 hours of the 12 ½ hour flight from Los Angeles to Auckland.  We had a short picturesque connecting flight to Kaitaia, Northland.  We arrived feeling good, almost refreshed.  Surprising!

Driving in New Zealand has only one major pitfall.  When you want to make a turn, very often the windshield wipers come on (nothing wrong with the car, just us).

Coopers Beach

This is our bach (cottage) for the first 15 days.  We look out the doors, and we can’t believe we are here or that it is January.  We often shake our heads in disbelief.

We have been walking regularly on the beach.  You can see the pohutakau trees that line this 1½ mile long beach.  The water is warm, much more comfortable than we are used to. 

Matai Bay

Remote Matai Bay has two beautiful crescent shaped beaches.  It lies directly across Doubtless Bay from Coopers Beach.  We enjoyed seeing our first pair of nesting oystercatchers.

Puketi Forest

After visiting the Department of  Conservation (DOC), we decided to hike the recommended Waihoanga Gorge Kauri Walk in the Puketi Forest.  Kauri trees are huge, and some are as old as 2,000 years.  The walk was other worldly, with fern trees,  cabbage trees, palm trees, and, of course, kauri trees.  We saw several magpies, myna birds and a pair of brightly colored (red, yellow, blue, green, and white) rosella parkeets before we entered the forest.  We believe this hike will be one of the highlights of the trip.

Russell

After catching the passenger ferry from Paihia to Russell, we walked the strand.  You can see B standing next to 170 year old fig tree on the strand.  Russell reminded us of Avalon on Catalina Island with the hills and the beachfront atmosphere.