Return to Auckland Tues 15 March

Uh oh, here it is then, our last full day in this lovely country.

Something unique to the North Island are the Kauri trees, the timber from which used to be exported for use in ship construction amongst other things. There's an area called the Waipoua Forest in Northland that's home to many Kauri so that's the route we decided to take as it's also where the oldest Kauri tree is to be found, more of which later.

Our first destination was a small village called Opononi, known for a dolphin named Opo that spent the summer of 1955 playing with children in the water but was then killed by fishermen unknown. There's a small statue that marks its grave, very touching. On the far shore there were enormous sand dunes higher than many hills back home, above is a picture of one.

After Opononi we headed for the forest and specifically Tane Mahuta, the giant, oldest Kauri in the country at over 2,000 years old (some estimates are circa 3,500 years old!). A short walk into the forest from the roadside brought us into the immense tree's presence, I was in absolute awe of this giant that words cannot describe, it was humbling to be there and to think of all that's happened in the world during its lifetime, such as many ages of man, the birth of Christ and everything we know about really.

Our next stop was the Waipoua Forest visitor centre (as mentioned in our guide book). I suppose the 1km unsealed road should have hinted at what a disappointment this would be, not much more than a small shed, no information and staff who didn't want to help. We didn't stay there long!

We continued south and made our next stop at the Kauri museum at Matakohe, what an interesting insight into the timber and gum (Kauri gum that is) industries it provided. The lonely, grubby, tough life most of the gum diggers led is hard to imagine but the ingenious methods they developed to make themselves more efficient were great to learn about.

And so to our final leg of our four-week NZ journey. Our host at The Retreat had suggested we stop at a fish & chip shop in Orewa before we got back into Auckland and, thanks to him, we had our last meal here sitting by a beach watching the world and lots of hungry seagulls go by. We then navigated back around the city and found our nice airport motel where in the morning we'll try to pack everything back into our bags for the flight to Singapore. Thank you New Zealand for the people we've met and the so many amazing places we've seen.