Northland

Meanwhile, the last month has already begun in New Zealand.
We have now been able to admire almost everything in New Zealand and have only missed a few places on both islands. But the northernmost tip of the North Island surprised us once again in a positive way.

The weather forecast for the coming days was rather poor. That's why we had to skip a few highlights before Coromandel, which we will of course catch up on in the next few days.
Nevertheless, we saw a glimmer of hope on the weather map. Because the forecast for Northland and Cape Reinga was quite good.
So we struggled through the rush hour traffic past Auckland to Whangarei. We stayed there for another 2 days to wait out the rain and set off immediately when the forecast for Cape Reinga couldn't get any better.

From Kaitaia, it was still about 200km to the lighthouse that marks the northernmost point at Cape. We stayed there the previous day and took a free shower before driving up the peninsula.
First, we headed to Henderson Bay and Rarawa Beach. We then spent several hours at Rarawa Beach, as we wanted to reach the lighthouse shortly before sunset.
When we were looking for other activities at the Cape after 2 hours of idleness, we came across the Te Paki Sand Dunes. We had already heard of them but had forgotten about them due to the spontaneous change in weather.
So we quickly borrowed a bodyboard and set off, because suddenly time seemed to fly until sunset.
On the way to the parking lot, we were already surprised by one of the huge sand dunes. We have indeed been able to admire many different landscapes in New Zealand, but we really did not expect a sand desert.
So we used the remaining time to slide down the steep sand slope on the bodyboard several times. We also went to the top of one of the sand dunes to overlook the "big" desert and the ocean.
After that, we continued to the lighthouse, where we could only see a mediocre sunset due to the clouds. We spent the night at a campsite right by the sea, from which we wanted to leave relatively early the next morning in order to be able to drive on the 90 Mile Beach at low tide. Despite its name, the 90 Mile Beach is only 55 miles long and can be driven on by cars. However, we were a bit afraid of getting stuck, especially when driving in and out of the sand, so we only drove 20 kilometers on it. It was a pretty cool feeling to drive along the waves at 70 km/h on a beach. Luckily, everything went well and our car brought us over the beach without any problems!

After spending the day with a walk, we wanted to meet up in the evening with a friend from Aachen who was spending her last few days in New Zealand at the Bay of Islands, specifically in Paihia. We sat by the harbor with fish and chips and there were three of us in this surprisingly touristy place. In the evening, we drove to a campsite with a beautiful view of the sea. There, we were woken up by the rising sun and then made our way to the Mermaid Pools after breakfast on the beach. It was a secret tip we received from a friend who kept us company in Whangarei. After a short, steep and unpaved path, we arrived. The Mermaid Pools are like a natural pool with a view of the sea and, also because they are less known, they were definitely a highlight on the North Island! We spent several hours there, but then had to quickly make our way back, as you can only walk back at low tide.
From the beach, we drove back to Whangarei to visit the Abby Caves. However, we only briefly looked at the first cave, as we didn't want to leave our car there for too long due to the risk of theft. We also planned to visit the Waipu Caves that day, where supposedly you can see the glowworms even better. Unfortunately, we cannot confirm this now, but it was impressive to see the glowworms shining like little stars from the ceiling in a pitch-dark cave.