In the morning we got on our way with CJ. The gas tank filled to a soothing level, we arrived at Cape Reinga after a little while. This is called New Zealand’s northernmost point, but actually is not the farthest point. That one lies a little to the east but is not as accessible, so we left it out…
In the north you find a sub-tropical climate, which really shows in nature. The area above Auckland differs substantially from the other North Island, in landscape, climate and the sights you’ll find…
The view on the Giant Sand Dunes, which we were to see up close later…
On the northernmost end of New Zealand you see the sea to both, the left and the right at the same time.
18000 kilometres, that you can savour slowly for sure. 😀
The famous lighthouse…
On our ‘way back’, we went over several beaches…
Tourists out in the wild… 🙂
Neatly knobby trees.
And suddenly you find yourself in the desert, when you visit the ‘Giant Sand Dunes’…
Celine and CJ went for the ‘jumping’ technique, to get down the extremely steep dune again.
And this is what winter looks like in the outermost North Island. 😀
There’s always time for art… 🙂
The last of three pictures I formerly didn’t include for the public to see. Let’s put it that way: CJ really lifted our experience that day. 😉
When the sun was almost gone, we said goodbye to CJ and went for the last long car ride. Destination: Auckland. There we wanted to hand over the car and go home by bus the next day.
We took a short rest in Kawakawa (Have I ever pointed out this multitude of different city names in New Zealand?) to marvel at the display of art of the famous artist ‘Hundertwasser’. See for yourself:
Main attraction: The public restroom.
The same one from the back.
The late evening we arrived in Auckland. That is another world compared to the rest of New Zealand. From a city of millions you want to expect multilane streets and confuzzling traffic, but the hostel made for the biggest difference: It was CHOCKA! So we slept (in almost unbearable cold) inside a fully booked 6-bed room and were happy to be outside in the end. Our car we took to the rental station in the morning as it was closed the night before…
With all our stuff we went to the supermarket and went through Auckland to the bus station in the winterly Sunday morning.
Just outside of Taupo a traffic jam formed on the highway and so we had a longer break in this wonderful settlement. We used it for a picnic of reflection on a bench, looking out on the biggest lake of New Zealand.
The last of it all was a taxi ride home, as all connecting busses had left… Nevertheless I could answer all questions of ‘how the journey went’ like: Devastatingly wonderfully beautiful and a grand ol’ success! 🙂
View on the mountaintops of the Tongariro from Lake Taupo.
On the last day we saw: Cape Reinga, beaches on the side of the road, the Giant Sand Dunes, Kawakawa and the Hunderwasser art on display and for the very end Auckland from within…
Bottom line: 3815 kilometres and about 4500 pictures (only by my camera). 🙂
I hope you had at least half of the fun we did, travelling with us via blog posts. 😉
