Arrived at the end of the world

In Kaitaia, we had another great experience with a local. After it rained in the evening, we just wanted to quickly cook something. Suddenly, a jeep approached and an older man got out. At first, we were a little tense because camping is actually prohibited at Lake Ngatu. But when the man offered us freshly smoked fish, we were totally relieved and overjoyed. The fish tasted incredibly delicious, and so our dinner was saved.

After a night of stormy rain (Rogi almost took off), it was finally time: Hello Far North!!

We set out to cover the last 100 kilometers between the northernmost point of New Zealand and Kaitaia.

The road to the north was as lonely as the term 'Far North' sounded. The gravel roads meandered through the lush green landscape where hundreds of sheep and cows grazed.

On the way, we picked up Gey, who has been backpacking around the world for several months. He joined us, and we slept one night at the DOC campground, which was surprisingly beautiful and large. From the DOC campground, it took us 5 minutes to reach a beautiful beach covered with many small seashells, from where we watched the sunset in the evening.

The next day, we headed towards Cape Reinga to see New Zealand's most famous lighthouse. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't particularly good to us again, and it rained heavily as we walked the approximately 1-kilometer path from the parking lot to the lighthouse - well, seeing is seeing - and as they say, 'the journey is the destination' :-)

However, it didn't rain in the afternoon anymore, and we were able to go sandboarding in dry weather, which was really a lot of fun and balanced out the annoying morning. :-)

Gay had given us a great tip, which was that there are so-called hot springs near Kaitaia, hot sulfur springs. So we made our way to Waiariki. It was really a hidden gem! We hardly met any tourists there because this hot spring is not mentioned in any of the travel guides. In addition, it only cost 4 dollars to enter, making it a real bargain, which is really rare in New Zealand. :-) and even better: you can easily get into conversation with the locals and get some insider tips from them, which is always a good thing. :-)