NEW ZEALAND: NORTH ISLAND
FROM AUCKLAND TO KERIKERI
day 2
So for those who have seen my last video and are back, either it wasn’t that bad (I don’t believe that for a second) or you like to be tortured (naughty you). Well there could be a third option, that you’re interested in seeing how bad these videos can get (the option I would bet on). Nonetheless, welcome back to you and the newcomers!
Today we pickup our camper-van and make our way north to Kerikeri near the Bay Of Islands. I got up early to head down to Viaduct Basin near Downtown Pier 4 for some photos. It was an overcast morning with some breaks in the clouds on the horizon. I came away with two though. One of The Cloud convention centre and the other of the Sky Tower. Afterwards I went for a walk on Queen’s Wharf around The Cloud before heading back to the room. I was getting hungry and the others would be getting up soon.
Finding a place to eat at 7:30 in the morning on a Sunday was more difficult than we thought. Everything was either closed or opened around 8:30-9 o’clock. Except for The MLC Cafe & Bar, just down the road from us, who open there doors at 7 am. The coffee, food and service was great. I can highly recommend it.
After brekky it was time to pickup our camper-van. We thought it would take about a half hour to have keys in hand but it took a little longer… three hours! Yep, no joke. They apparently had a glitch with their system. We had planned to arrive in Kerikeri around 12:30-1 o’clock but we were just leaving Auckland. No matter, our trip around the North Island of New Zealand had begun. Destination Kerikeri, north of Auckland near the Bay of Islands, with a little stop-over in Kawakawa. A little town at the cross road where you can either head east to Paihia or north-west further up the island. I wanted to visit Kawakawa’s public toilets. Yes, you read me right. But not any toilets, the Hundertwasser public toilets. A beautiful work of art. I’m glad we stopped to check the toilets out because we would never seen the rest of the art works in this little town. Well worth a stop-over.
Moving onward, we’d planned to stop by a couple of wineries, a cheese factory, a chocolate factory and a honey boutique… but it was Sunday. Everything is closed on Sunday. So we kept going to our next stop, The Stone Store where we would also find the Honey House Cafe and the Pear Tree restaurant. All located along the Kerikeri River and all closed apart from the Pear Tree. But it didn’t matter because the area was just beautiful. We spent some time here exploring and taking photos.
It was nearing the end of the day and we wanted to visit the Rainbow Falls before sunset. And beautiful falls they are. I really like one that show the length of the falls. I took one photo from both lookouts and headed back to the camper-van. It was nearing dark and we hadn’t found a spot to stay the night yet. We’d decided to stay at a free campsite tonight and the closes one was in a town called Kaikohe. About a forty minutes drive west of Kerikeri. The campsite was just a parking area suited for long vehicles.
Well, that’s it for day two. Hope to see you for day three. Goodnight.