The most famous beach and the bleakest campsite in New Zealand - 90 Mile Beach

Phew... it looked quite different yesterday! It's gray, windy, rainy, and cool. How unpleasant. Today, we're heading towards 90 Mile Beach. Check-out time at most places is already at 10 a.m....how ungodly. That's why we're quickly packing up and driving around the corner to a nice spot with a sea view. Conveniently, a coffee truck is stationed here today.

After that, we’re off. It’s quite a drive, but the view is always magnificent! It's up and down, windy and rainy, thankfully we are inside and not outside.

Upon arriving at 90 Mile Beach, we also find a kiosk selling coffee. Two iced coffees for the beach, even though the weather calls more for mulled wine...well, it's not really that cold. The beach is spectacular and barely visited. The pictures surely speak for themselves.

Funny enough, we almost took an organized tour to Cape Reinga and 90 Mile Beach because we both thought the other wanted to, since the buses also drive over 90 Mile Beach. Luckily, it cleared up BEFORE we set out on a 12-hour bus tour! What a turn of events.

The campsite is quite a disappointment. We were hoping for a beach and sea view, but all we get is a bare, large area with pitches. The receptionist Wendy is very nice, and the facilities are good too. You just can’t have it all.

Our plan to have an aperitif at the beach is thwarted by the weather. It's raining. So we make ourselves cozy in the little compact castle and will have dinner inside today.

The next morning, the weather is friendlier and it’s not raining. Quickly, we head out to visit the beach again - not without first getting coffee from the kiosk. Since we are cozy people, we bring our chairs to the beach. Very nice! The fact that one chair is missing half a leg falls under the category of loss…

Now, we are about to leave Northland and are driving towards Auckland.

And that’s why we also present “News from the section: the most original toilets in the southern hemisphere.”

After the toilets in the Cube, today we’re heading to the Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa. Already exciting what you might come across on the way. Filled with cultural delight and the actual function of the same, we now have the capacity for a nice steak & mushroom pie. Even we can’t live on air and love alone, even though one might think so…

At the campsite in Red Beach, we are faced with a nuisance! Our parking spot is occupied and the staff is unable to resolve the issue satisfactorily.

When the allegedly unlawful occupants of our spot appear, the situation gets clarified. The staff is even more incompetent than expected. They themselves had given our spot to the “occupants” the day before because their actual spot was already taken. Funny - or actually quite irritating - is that despite the license plate, which is registered in every booking, the staff was unable to figure out who those people are… at times, one is left speechless. It didn’t seem to interest them that there were apparently people on the spot who didn’t belong there. That makes the code-secured gate at the beach access make perfect sense… we can’t stop shaking our heads… well… what else should we shake!