Cape Reinga and the west coast of the Northland

We made it to the top - yippee! After a long drive up the Northland Peninsular and a quick stop off at Henderson Bay for our first swim in the Pacific, we made it to Cape Reinga!

Although you can imagine our disappointment when we discovered that it isn’t in fact the most northern part of New Zealand, that’s actually the cape on the north east - the aptly named North Cape.

Despite this set back, our spirits were quickly raised again by the Te Paki Dunes - the largest sand dunes either of us had ever seen and one of our favourite stop offs so far. These dunes also lie at the top of the 90 Mile Beach, another real highlight and big one ticked off the NZ bucket list.

Spot Nathan in the photo above!

On our journey south through the Northland we travelled down the west coast. Whilst this coast is noticeably quieter than the east, there were still some lovely stop offs to break up the driving. These included the quirky town of Rawene and the huge trees of the Waipoua Kauri Forest. These are the second largest trees in the world and we saw Tāne Mahuta, the biggest Kauri in NZ, which is also sacred to Māori.

Van life is continuing to go relatively smoothly - you’ll all be pleased to hear that our sink fixing mission was a success and we’re both continuing to get a lot of enjoyment out of improving and fixing up our little van home.

We’ve spent the past few days around Auckland and are heading out on a whale watching safari today for Josie’s birthday present! Fingers crossed we see some!🤞🏼