Tane Mahuta

Slept crappy last night. You have to rent sheets, but I didn't, I had my silk sleeping sheets Darren gave me, but it was frickin cold last night. I'll have to rent sheets and a duvet for tonight.

Up about 8:30, showered, paid for the room for tonight and rented sheets and a duvet ($1) Had breakfast.

Walked downtown, checked out the different cruise operations and took some pictures. It's a crappy day today, cold, windy, threatening rain, so I decided to not do a cruise today, instead do a day trip in my car.

So, I made some sandwiches, then hopped in my car, drove to Puketoma, then south to Pakaraka, then east on SH12 through Taheke to Opononi and Omapere. Stopped at a lookout point and took some pics of the huge sand dunes on the north side of the inlet/bay. Then continued south on SH12 to the Waipoua Forest, and stopped to see Tane Mahuta, the worlds largest living kauri tree, and New Zealand's largest tree of any kind. It's 2000 years old, 52m high, 14m high, and the name means "God of the Forest".

Continued a couple of kilometres south and did a short hike to see some other old kauri trees, including Te Matua Ngahere (Father of the Forest, NZ's 2nd largest tree), and the Four Sisters, 3 close-knit kauri's. Had to make a quick trip back to Tane Mahuta to take a dump, then continued south and checked out the Kui Iwi Lakes (nothing special, despite the thumbs up from Let's Go), then on to Baylys Beach, which is NZ's longest beach at 100km. It's also very, very wide and is officially a public highway. I drove down onto the beach, but didn't have the guts to drive along it, for fear of getting stuck! Lots of other vehicles driving along it, though, mostly 4x4's and motorbikes.

There's also 90 Mile Beach, on the northern tip of NZ, which is actually 90km (56 miles) long. Apparently it's also an official highway too, but the Let's Go and Lonely Planet recommend against driving cars along either of them.

The road through Waipoua was very twist and turny, and very nice, surrounded by thick forest all the way.

After the beach, drove through Dargaville, then east along SH14 to Whangarei. Got there about 6:00ish, had supper at KFC. Going to KFC, in town, I accidentally found myself driving on the wrong side of the road, and had to swerve back to the left-hand side!! Hahaha!! AFter KFC, back up to Paihia along SH1. Got back to the hostel about 7:45!

Then internet!

TTYL!