After exploring the east coast of Northland, we headed to the west coast. We first stopped in a town called Opononi on the Hokianga Harbour to use their facilities. Upon parking, we noticed a statue of a young boy with a dolphin. Apparently, the town’s legacy is that in the summer of 1956, a friendly dolphin, Opo, befriended many of the towns people. When Opo died, they buried him in town complete with a tombstone and a local artist created the statue for the towns center.
We continued down the coast to a scenic viewpoint right off the highway. After a quick walk, we had beautiful views of the Tasman Sea, the Hokianga Harbour, sand dunes across the harbor, and the towns of Opononi and Omapere. Just stunning!
Next, we headed inland to do a small hike which we will detail is a later post. When we got back on the road, we decided to stop and see the largest Kauri trees in the world.
Conveniently, the highway winds through the Waipoua Forrest is such a way that several of the largest trees are an easy stop off the road. We first stopped at Tane Mahuta, or Lord of the Forrest. This mammoth of a tree is estimated to be 2000 years old. At over 50 meters tall and with a trunk diameter of over 13 meters, it is the largest tree in New Zealand.
Because the highway passes several of these gigantic trees and we did not have a lot of time, we debated on which stops to make as we continued south. We turned to our guide (NZ Frenzy by Scott Cook) and saw that Yakas, the 7th largest tree, was highly recommended. The trek to Yakas was estimated to take 30 minutes each way which meant we would be cutting it close to get to a campsite by sunset. In a joking manner, Will suggested we run the path and I think he was surprised I took him up on it! Yakas was gorgeous and the best part was that the path took us right up to the tree allowing for a big tree hug. We made it back to the car in less than 30 minutes.
We continued further south and managed to arrive at our planned campsite right before sunset. We stayed at a basic campground right on Lake Taharoa. It was surprisingly busy – we gathered families were enjoying their weekend (possibly before Easter break).
The next day, we headed to the town of Dargaville to do laundry, get groceries and catchup on the Internet (using the town library’s free wifi). After a productive day, we headed further south to a basic campsite in Pahi. We were right on a bay with beautiful views and the beaches were full of birds wading in the water. It was a relaxing evening. We woke to cloudy skies but they quickly cleared and even sported a rainbow of us to enjoy during breakfast.
While packing up, we were surprised to find bug bites all over our bodies. Throughout the previous week, we had noticed mosquitos and bites here or there, but Pahi had a breeze and flies did not bother us. We started to kick around the idea that bugs were living in our campervan. As soon as we could, we found a store to buy insect killer and sprayed all surfaces (a couple of times). Nether of us had previously experienced bed bugs but we started to wonder if that was our culprit. After spraying a few times, we only found two dead bugs near our bed. A Google image search has me convinced they were bed bugs but Will is still not sure. Either way, it seems like we are no longer getting mysterious bites as we sleep (and we are still sleeping with all of the insect protected clothing we own!)
