Omahuta Forest (Kauri trees)

We drove up the hill above Shipwreck Bay (really, there was no shipwreck to be seen, lame...). On the hills up here, there were shrubs as far as the eye could see. We walked over braiding 4WD tracks to a sheer 200m drop-off where paragliders used to launch from. Despite it being overcast, it was impressive to see 90-mile beach trail off behind the horizon. Cool view!

We drove over a rundown road, dodging potholes that would have swallowed our van whole. And that was before the 15km gravel driveway! All this for an overgrown kauri stump (Jenna was not impressed). You could walk a little circle over the stump, and the crown of the tree was down about 50m further on. It was raining, so it didn’t seem worth the drive. But just a bit further down the road, at the Kauri Sanctuary, a half-hour loop went past some of the biggest living Kauri. We saw the world's 8th and 12th largest Kauri trees along the loop. Impressive!

We bobbed back down the gravel driveway, and the rundown road to make it to the river ferry just in time. It had already closed its gates, but they kindly opened them again and waved us aboard.

At Opononi we saw a video of Opo, a dolphin who was a big hit in 1955. It was a nice place to hide from the heavy rain. We drove up to a scenic lookout, and waited for the rain to die down. It held out just long enough for a 15-min loop to look out over the dunes on the other side of the harbour, the beautiful beaches down below and some local fishermen riding the big waves.

We drove on to another big park that is famous for its Kauri trees. We saw Tane Mahuta, the biggest of them all, about 2000 years old. Just a little way back along the road, we had seen a little gravel side street that led nowhere. We decided to camp there for the night. Being in a swampy area of the forest, the blackflies and mosquitos were really bad here. Keep all the doors shut!

We didn’t hang around for very long the following morning. The flies, mosquitoes and swamp smell drove us away pretty quick.Read more