Week 1: Auckland and Doubtless Bay

Auckland. City of sails!

We arrive in Auckland after almost 30 hours door to door of travelling. Yes, it’s long, but when we arrive in Auckland it feels great. There’s a buzz in the air, the sun is shining and it’s fresh and green and feels really welcoming. We arrive on Auckland anniversary celebration weekend and get stuck in to acclimatising as best we can. As usual this means walking miles and miles whilst exploring, stopping every now and then for coffee or to stock-up on the things we need but didn’t want to carry from England. Auckland is a beautiful, young, lively city right on the harbour and we walk though parks and suburbs, with steep hills reminiscent of San Fransico (not that we’ve been). Last time we were here we had failed to notice the influence of the Japanese community on the city and its restaurants. Not this time. We seem to be in the heart of the Japanese community, and get stuck in with some Sushi and Sashimi, yum. (Good practice for our next country!)

Monday morning and whilst the weather is not being quite as kind to us today (windy and raining) we have a trip already organised to watch some of the celebratory boating activities from a boat in the harbour. The finer points of yacht racing are lost on us but we are transfixed by the tug boat race that happens annually and features a restored steam powered tug run by enthusiasts. The newer boats really race; this is serious stuff with pride at stake. As you can see by the pictures three extremely powerful tugs are really pulling out all the stops, going pretty fast, but literally four feet apart!

The age of chivalry is not dead, however, and with the ‘Daldy’ or ‘dawdley’ as we named her lagging behind, the newer boats stop and allow this very old steam tug to catch up, overtake and take the gun. All very cute.

Doubtless Bay

Tuesday morning we pick up our hire car and hit the open road. In many ways this freedom to escape into New Zealand in a vehicle feels like gaining control of our destiny and marks the beginning of the next nine months. We have decided, with reference to a wholly inadequate ‘touring’ map that we will head straight to the top of New Zealand and then wind our way back down. So we drive from down-town Auckland to Mangonui. Not quite right at the top, but the start of ‘right at the top’ and a picturesque village on the coast to use as a base to then explore the pretty beaches and deserted peninsula that make up the far north of ‘Northland’.

Mangonui is at the top of Doubtless Bay and is an easy drive to a collection of beautiful and secluded bays and beaches on the Karikari Peninsula which we spend the best part of the day exploring before heading back home to fill ourselves up on freshly caught fish and chips.

Next on our agenda is a coach tour of Ninety Mile Beach and Cape Reinga the ‘tipper most top’ of the North Island. 90 Mile Beach is a driveable beach which as the name may gives away, is mile upon mile of beautiful white sand (though it’s only 60 miles long – con). However, the best bit is yet to come. We drive off the beach through a quick sand river (no stopping here folks!) and arrive at some immense sand dunes. These really are ridiculously high…but all the better for what we have in mind. Sand dune sledging! Walking up sand dunes that high is pretty exhausting but sledging down them so much fun.

A drive further up to Cape Reinga produces some beautiful views of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meeting each other just in front of a beautiful little lighthouse.