Whangarei

So guys, awake! Here at the mega campsite in Whangarei. When I woke up around 7, got ready in the bathroom, etc., more and more people gathered to jog. There were so many, and everyone was doing their warm-up exercises. No judgment, respect for that, but it still looked somewhat funny. For me, though, it was straight into the city along the river over a few bridges, a beautiful path. Everyone was super friendly, greeting each other and laughing; lots of dogs were running around. I treated myself (yes, I know I just splurged yesterday) to a brownie and a coffee. Folks, the brownie—I’m telling you, it’s moist with nuts in it, a real delight. With that coffee in hand, you kind of feel like you’re casually strolling, just normal (or is it just me?). It's like I lived here. I generally felt extremely comfortable there; you know that feeling of being in certain places where you just feel great for some reason. That’s how it was here, love it. So I just intended to stroll around briefly, but I ended up staying there for almost 4 hours. I sat on a bench, walked around, snatched some Wi-Fi, and then managed to call my sister. Oh, and I had some important business payments to make because I drove on two toll roads yesterday. But here you can pay online, which means you need to pay it within 5 days, or a reminder will come in. But it's actually a cool system; you just enter your license plate on the website, and it shows you which roads you drove on through the license plate recognition, and then you just pay. I paid 5 dollars for the 2 roads, so about 2-3 euros, and that was the first and last time I needed to pay. Back to the topic, eventually, I had to return to the parking lot, and then something came up that I didn’t want to do at all: vacuuming the car. Since I had reached an unbearable level of dirt, it had to be done, and you know, I would never have done such a thing at home. Here, home is the car, so off I went, Carina. And yes, it was not bad at all; the car is vacuumed, and the bulk of the dirt is gone. Now back to the fun part. I headed to A. H. Reed Memorial Kauri Park. I started walking there, going over super high wooden walkways/bridges to some really huge Kauri trees—likely very, very old ones. I was just looking at a tree when an older gentleman approached me. He said sorry but he has to do this as part of his morning ritual. I thought, what’s happening now? Then he hugged the tree and chatted with me a bit; what a likable guy, haha. There was a path leading to a small waterfall that I checked out: Paranui Falls; it was really beautiful. I actually wanted to drive to Whangarei Falls, but there was a hiking path that led there, so of course, I took it. Always along the river, through the rainforest over very shaky hanging bridges (by the way, I seem to have successfully conquered my fear of bridges with some exposure therapy here). The path was incredibly beautiful, and then, folks, I spotted the huge waterfall through the palms and all. Wow! That might be my favorite waterfall. You stand right in front of it; the water flows towards you, perfect for cooling off after the hike there. Moreover, you can also go up and cross over, so you can see it from all sides. When I got back down, there was some commotion. A lovely family of ducks was swimming there, and next to it was a dog. Yes, it enjoyed the whole scene but decided to go hunting for baby ducks. All the people around the shore were on edge, wondering if we would see a baby duck get eaten. The dog owners at the edge screamed for their dog, trying everything to call it back, but of course, the dog was completely focused on the ducks. Thank heavens, they always managed to dive down in time, and no baby ducks were harmed, though they definitely have dog trauma now. After this happy ending, I returned to the parking lot through the beautiful nature.

So, it was afternoon by now. I actually wanted to go somewhere, but it's quite a distance, so it wouldn’t have been worth it; we’ll do that tomorrow. I went shopping and made a short stop for avocado toast with tomatoes, an absolute delight, folks, before heading to the camp area for today. I thought yesterday was luxurious, but no, folks, there’s a real bathroom with showers right next to a library. I’m standing by the river with mountain views and a sunset; I made dinner with that view. And if you think, wow, that’s impressive—yes, folks, there’s Wi-Fi here too, whattt, 5 stars! The sun was shining, so I tidied up the car a bit, sorted things out, cleaned up, aired it out, and read in my camping chair.

Folks, it was an absolutely 10/10 day (except for vacuuming the car, but it had to be done).