Publicado: 15.11.2018
We left Russell on the way back with the car ferry and made a stop at the Haururu Falls, and at the Stone House in Kerikeri, the building has remained almost unchanged since 1837 and is surrounded by a café and garden. Today, it is a small shop and attracts locals as well as tourists, very beautiful. Then we made another stop in Taupo Bay, a small holiday resort on a beautiful coast! Then we checked into our hotel, or at least that's what you could call it ( booking.com either didn't announce us or the receptionist with the glass eye and greasy hair was a bit scatterbrained), after a few calls from the man, we finally got our room for two nights at the price listed on booking.com. In the afternoon, we went to Ahipara and wanted to go to a viewpoint, which we unfortunately couldn't reach with our Toyota Yaris on a gravel road, so we had to turn around after half of the way. But the view during the beach walk was also very nice. The next day, today, we set off for Cape Reinga at around 10 o'clock, where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet (I didn't expect to see such a clear boundary). On the way, we stopped at a lake where we had our sandwiches for breakfast. When we arrived at Cape Reinga, we went on a beautiful but hilly hike, where we met two girls from Detmold who gave us some tips for our next stops. Then we drove to the largest sand dune on 90 Mile Beach, which is only 20 minutes away from Cape Reinga, and surfed on a sand dune there, really cool, even though you have sand everywhere afterwards. Afterwards, we followed the signs for 90 Mile Beach for another 50 kilometers on the motorway and ended up at an incredible place, with nothing around except dune, beach, sea, and not to forget the few cars and trucks, as the beach is used by some (legally) as a highway, but it's best to use suitable vehicles, our little Toyota was of course also allowed to take a little turn, but we decided to drive back to the motorway. Everything is crazy here! On the way back, we stopped at our favorite supermarket chain in Kaitaia and hid our ice packs for the food in the freezer, so that they freeze again, since we don't have the opportunity in our accommodation, or rather we didn't want to ask the glass-eyed man about it, if we would find them again tomorrow?