12/06/2017 - Nikolaus brought us a lot ...

As already mentioned, the West Coast of the 'Northland' of the North Island doesn't offer much worth seeing. The weather has been crazy the last few days. It has been very unstable and characterized by a lot of rain. We used the time to do laundry, write new blogs, and charge our electronics. In addition, we explored the nearby area and visited a small Kauri forest.

Our journey then took us towards Matakohe. Halfway there, near the highway, there was a lookout point - the 'Tokatoka Lookout Track'. From the parking lot, it took about 20 minutes uphill to a rock platform. From there, there was a beautiful 360-degree view over the region and the Wairoa River.
In Matakohe, we visited one of the most popular museums in all of New Zealand. 'The Kauri Museum' is award-winning and worth a visit. We spent four hours in the exhibition. It tells, among other things, the history of the country's timber industry and how it was possible to fell and process these giant trees despite limited technology. There was also an exhibition that dealt with Kauri resin. In the past, trees were deliberately cut. The tree closes the wound with the help of the resin. For the people, this resin was and still is very valuable and in demand.
Our conclusion is that we found the museum interesting, but we prefer to admire the living Kauris in the forest.

After spending a night in Matakohe, our next destination was Muriwai Beach. We will be staying at this campground for the next three nights. On the day of arrival, we explored the nearby beach of the same name. We immediately liked this black sand beach and took a stroll along the water. For dinner, we had delicious apple pancakes. The rest of the camping community was quite surprised. ;)
We felt really good that evening. Happy to have a dream beach at our doorstep and a parking spot under a tree, we went to bed. But the peace didn't last long. Like every night, we opened our windows a little bit. After three mosquitoes managed to get into the car before falling asleep, it became increasingly louder over time and more and more mosquitoes found their way into our car. There was no more sleep to be had. Desperate from hunting mosquitoes, we searched for the insect spray and sprayed ourselves with it. The air in the car became increasingly stuffy, so we decided shortly afterwards to open the two rear sliding doors. A fatal mistake - with the fresh air, more mosquitoes managed to get into the car. We were more than fed up and it was clear - tonight, we won't be getting any sleep ...
Around 6:00 am, we looked at our phones for the first time and realized that we managed to get about two to three hours of sleep. We discovered countless mosquitoes on our ceiling. (There were an estimated 25 of them.) The urgent need arose to get out of the car as quickly as possible. In doing so, we stirred up the bugs and a few managed to escape. It was clear to us that we would spend the next night at a different campground! We managed to chase the remaining mosquitoes out of the car. It was also clear that we wouldn't be able to stick to today's plan of various hikes and would have to postpone it by a day. Completely exhausted and tired, we made ourselves breakfast and took a shower. That's when we discovered a lot of bites on our hands, arms, and legs.
We decided to visit a gannet colony very close by. It is located above Muriwai Beach. After a short climb, we could already hear and smell them from afar. The view from the top was spectacular. Hundreds of birds nested on the rocks. No matter where you looked, there was chatter and movement everywhere. The gannets return to this place every year to give birth to their young. They are not at all impressed or disturbed by humans. They only leave this place for four months a year to fly to warm Australia. We spent some time on the various observation terraces before continuing to the nearest bay. We discovered an inviting bench and made ourselves comfortable. While enjoying a snack, we watched the many surfers catching waves. Our eyes got heavier and heavier, so we relaxed for a while on the 'surfboard bench'.
That was our outing for today. We marched back to the campground, past the gannet colony. Once there, we lay down completely exhausted in bed and took a short nap. Feeling a bit refreshed, we had Satay Chicken for dinner. Afterwards, we had enough energy to go back to the beach. In addition to the gannets, we enjoyed the sunset and hoped for a slightly quieter night.