Among Maoris & Hobbits
The time has come to pick up the car. Thanks to a taxi that got lost, the modest drive of only 8km was delayed by almost an hour. Uber ended up saving our ass and we still got the rental car.
We head north to escape the capital's traffic and crowds.
You have to be quite far away from the capital before the amount of traffic and buildings reaches a more tolerable level - but after 100km of driving it starts to help. We find a campsite by the water, where a family of ducks walks around and keeps the guests company.
Whangarei Falls is a small natural gem, not too far from the city. It's easy to just drop by and have a look. There are table and bench sets all the way to the water's edge, but the waterfall blows water inwards, so this is not where lunch should be taken. The idea is otherwise outstanding. But then we would probably have to wear swimwear and eat water porridge.
We drive on to the Bay of Islands. The tour goes through green landscapes, with high hills and winding roads. Everything is green in green and very lush. There is almost only the large white and pink pampas grass to break up all the green. Down on the beach it is clearly low tide. There are thousands of oysters. The majority are empty shells, as birds love to go and eat them. A few people are also out collecting some.
Another waterfall lies on the route north. Haruru Falls. A couple of young people have rented a canoe and are daringly sailing very close to the rushing water. They get a lot of pleasure out of it and when they see us taking pictures, a few arms go up in the air. Nice sunny day. At the car park we can see that there is a sign indicating that there are kiwis in the forest. Ahh... we'd like to see them. We go for a walk in the forest and after walking a few kilometers without seeing a single one, we find out that kiwis are nocturnal. We're not, so we head back to our car, exhausted. Otherwise it would have been nice to see someone like that.
A morning walk on the beach in Kaitaia, suddenly 15 horses come walking. They just roam freely and steer directly down towards some grassy areas near some housing. They come walking from a small stream onto the beach. Judging by their appearance and the fact that they are not wearing horseshoes, they are free-ranging horses.
Johnny follows them until they reach a private lot. A friendly lady beckons him closer - that's perfectly fine. You are welcome to take pictures here.
A sign points to Gumdiggers park. It's a funny name. Are they digging for gum? It probably requires a closer inspection. The lady at the ticket office laughs and says that gum is a precursor to amber. She can understand that it sounds a little strange. She says that 45,000-150,000 years ago the area was hit by a disaster which caused many giant trees to topple over and fall into the bog. The high pressure of water and soil has caused the trees to accumulate enormous amounts of resin which lay in clumps. The lumps were found by sticking rods into the ground and then it was just a matter of digging out by hand. They were then sold and used for, among other things, furniture lacquer.
We drive until we can't go any further north. Now it's just a matter of walking the last short distance towards the lighthouse. Everything up here is lush green in green. Very neat and tidy...but where does the adventure hide?
We try different things, but decide that unfortunately we have to go through Auckland and south of the capital - to find more attractions. There is a heavy traffic density and it takes us 3 hours to drive through the city at about 15 km/h - and that outside rush hour.
Hobbiton was built in conjunction with the filming of The Lord of the Rings and is now a hugely popular tourist attraction. It is now also quite beautiful and very photogenic. There is only a guided tour, but it is now also very pleasant to go and get stories about their film matrix, and robber stories from the filming.
Obviously, it is a film set where they have thought a lot about light and shadow. We are lucky enough to be on an early morning tour and have really nice conditions to experience the whole area.
As we book into a campsite in the afternoon, we also get tickets booked for a Maori show that evening. Almost by accident. It is only mentioned to Campingmutter that it is something we would like to do - and whoops - she has already booked us in. Well, then we're going to the show.
It's an entertaining evening with warriors canoeing through crystal clear water. Welcome Haka and song and dance. Finally, there is a big dinner with food made in the old fashioned way of digging a hole and burning wood for embers. Stones are then placed on top, and then the food is placed on top and covered with soil. Here it stands and enjoys itself for a few hours, until it is ready to eat. When it's all over, we walk through the forest, which is full of St. John's Worms, nicely lit up with their little green lights.
