Picture Summary of the Last Few Days

We encountered snow, rain, and sun in the last 3 days of our journey down to the Cook Strait.  We're excited to spend a few days in windy Wellington - every person we have met on the road has raved about the capital city.  Now to figure out where to park the camper van...

Huka Falls & Waikato River

Blizzard conditions in Tongariro 

            

              Warming up with some Monteith's
                at Powderhorn Chateau

Waitarere Forest

Sunset north of Wellington

Hobbiton

We feel that very few words need to be written about Hobbiton, as anyone who might be reading this blog already 100% knows of Kelly and Adam's mutual love for Lord of the Rings. Let's just say that it lived up to all expectations - a little slice of magic in otherwise completely normal farmlands.

Bag End! 

Hobbiton!

Sam's House! 

A 30% scale house - toddlers were used in these shots

We stopped for drinks at the Green Dragon

Green Dragon and the bridge to Hobbiton

Cape Reinga and the Waitakere Ranges

The last 2 days we pushed pedal to the metal on the camper van, which can go surprisingly fast, to get up through the rest of the Northlands region, down through the Waitakere Ranges west of Auckland, and rolled in to Port Waikato last night (Matamata, i.e. Hobbiton, you are so close!).

First we went to Cape Reinga, which is the northern most point you can visit on New Zealand. It was beautiful, and has a very significant stitch in the fabric of Maori culture. The insane wave patterns of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean colliding off the cape represent the creation of life, and the 800 year old tree at the tip of the rocky point (look reallll close in the first picture and you can see it) is where souls depart for the afterlife. We just appreciated a warm place to take an afternoon nap.  

Ninety Mile Beach in the distance

The next day, we spent the afternoon wandering the many walking tracks of the Waitakere Ranges' dramatic coastline, which we think is New Zealand's Big Sur (except with black sand). The highlight was definitely Karekare Beach (which was used for the opening sequence of the movie The Piano) - it was unlike any beach we had ever seen. Like most beaches in New Zealand so far, it seemed to go on forever with absolutely no one on it, had black sand that gave it an ominous appearance, and at least 8 rows of huge waves. Beautiful!

Northlands

We were hoping to post this after we visited Camp Reinga (our next stop) but since we have to take advantage of free WiFi when we can, we thought we'd post a couple pictures from the Northlands so far (thank you Awanui Holiday Park for having internet!). A few locals told us that we would love the weather in what they call the "winterless north," and we are thankful they were right - otherwise we would not have been able to appreciate (as much) some of the views we had as we made our way up the eastern coast from Auckland.

One strip of the highway that hugs the coast is called Million Dollar View Road - below are some pictures that don't nearly do it justice.

Whangarei Falls

Home for Next 25 Days!

Here we go!