Stopover Auckland

So now we're back in Auckland. After leaving Russel again on Friday morning, we continued driving north.

On Saturday, we made our way to Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of New Zealand. We drove about 150 km north on almost completely empty roads. Just before Cape Reinga, we took the opportunity to try sandboarding. You simply lie on a (borrowed) surfboard and ride down one of the large dunes. It's a lot of fun, especially when racing against each other, but running uphill in the sand is quite tiring. After visiting the Cape, we drove to a beach with big waves. While Robin lay down in the sun again, I jumped into the waves with my camera and tried to take some cool photos.

After Robin cut my hair, we looked for a rest area to sleep. We quickly found one with a very nice view, but we were attacked by a horde of mosquitoes, so we drove about 30 km further.

On Sunday evening, we found a campground at "90 mile beach", which is actually only 55 miles (88 km) long. The next morning, we drove onto the beach. You can drive along the entire beach, which we had unfortunately missed before due to the mosquito attack.

Afterwards, we went to Dargaville and the next day to Parakai. It wasn't as many kilometers as in Germany, but thanks to the roads, it took significantly longer. The nature along the roads is beautiful; many mountains and forests you drive past.

On Wednesday, we visited several waterfalls, hoping to take some cool photos. In the end, only one was accessible, but it was definitely worth it! Today we're heading back to Auckland as a stopover for the journey across the rest of the North Island and the conclusion of the Northland.