In Paihia, we arrived in darkness once more and were only able to grasp all the splendour when it was morning… We put up a few destinations and soon stood in front of the first attraction, the Parrot Place in Kerikeri.
Yes, we saw many colourful and marvellous birds you could feed and let sit on your hands, which was a nice experience. Though all too soon Celine opened my eyes to a fact that didn’t get to me from the beginning: The cages were small and the birds didn’t look exactly happy… I made up for the admission shooting some more pictures, but this visit we didn’t book as a success. Thus, the pictures are not only to show their primary motive, but also make you aware and critical of the background in them.
Somewhat disillusioned we drove off to the Rainbow Falls. Though we couldn’t see a rainbow, but that could have been due to the position of the sun and clouds. Even so: Waterfall. 🙂
The next point on the agenda is, thinking back now, almost of magical beauty, as the place where the oldest buildings of New Zealand can be found is being cherished quite wondrously…
The Stone Store, New Zealand oldest stone-made building.
The friendly gardener pointed out this cutie of a hare to us.
Built by Maori and missionaries in 1822, Kemp House stands as the oldest of buildings in this country.
There are guided tours for both of the buildings, though we gapped those for today.
Our goal was to reach the far north and as we had booked no accomodation yet, our final destination was unknown. A roadtrip benefits from that, as anything is possible then…
‘World Famous’ it says, which we didn’t know until after. As this Fish Shop in Mangonui actually is famous.
With this view, you just enjoy having a bite. 🙂 The shop was quite well visited, contrary to our recent findings on the road…
So I didn’t let the opportunity slide to try a good helping of mussels.
Somewhere in a splendrous bay we were presented with this view. To live right there… 🙂
On the peninsula Karikari we went down abandoned streets that led us to that gorgeous lonely beach in the end.
Fluffy like the softest brush, but tangy on the smell were these peculiar blossoms.
Part of our plan was to look at the sunset on the 90 Mile Beach in the west. It is not 90 miles long but 90 kilometres and is just an overly long beach in the end, which I hope the picture will show…
After a short stop on said beach we went on, as there is a rocky patch somewhere. As it was marked with a star and street name on our map and we followed it, just to look online for it and be taught a better lesson: That patch you can only reach driving down the beach. With a dodgy 2WD this wouldn’t be a good idea, as we don’t have any experience with the tide and possible hurldes of the beach.
In short: Turn around and go to the next access point to the beach. That one was that far back that the sun was almost gone when we got there.
Adding to that was the fact that our gas tank was virtually empty. Thus, we had to make our way to the next gas station using the pedal to the smallest extents. 65 kilometres with the gauge in the lowest position. We were relieved beyond measure, when the warning light (which existence we stopped believing in) lit up in the last quarter of the way…
In Kaitaia we just looked for a hostel and asked for accomodation on the spot. Contrary to the ratings on the internet, the place was all fine and here, again, our roommates were counting 0.
While taking our simple supper, CJ approached us. He is the American we quickly practiced card tricks, had a good talk, played table tennis until 1am with and agreed to take with us to Cape Reinga the next day…
A grand day: We saw the Parrot Place, the Rainbow Falls, the oldest buildings in New Zealand, incredible views on the side of the road (constantly), the Mangonui Fish Shop, the Karikari Peninsula, the 90 Mile Beach and the most beautiful gas station in all of New Zealand. 😀
