East Coast Beaches 

We’re off. Heading back down from the very top of the North Island toward Auckland dubbed the City of Sails. You can make the trip in about four hours straight, but it might be a nice treat to head back down the west coast and stop at Dargaville the gateway to the Kauri Coast. 

Places of interest in this lovely windswept area are Tane Mahuta 'God of the Forest', the largest Kauri tree in New Zealand is in this Waipoua Forest, the Nature sanctuary of Trounson Kauri Park, the exquisite crystal clear Kai Iwi Lakes and the Kaipara Harbour - the longest coastline in the Southern Hemisphere, plus the internationally acclaimed Kauri Museum at Matakohe. 

The Kauri Museum displays steam sawmills and large mill machinery, kauri gum exhibits, a 1900s kauri house, along with extensive assortment of photographs, historic buildings and a superb collection of memorabilia. Allow plenty of time for this stop. Our native kauri trees grow to gigantic proportions and back in the 1800s when New Zealand migrants from Dalmatia/Yugoslavia were the bulk of the work force for Kauri gum collecting. Some call it "amber" but our kauri gum is still a resin and hasn't gone to the amber stage. Maori used the softer gum for chewing gum, lighting fires and to produce a pigment used for tattooing. In the early 1800s the Europeans experimented with gum and found that it could be used as a high quality varnish. The lesser quality gum was used in the manufacture of linoleum and paint.

The beaches near Dargaville are also ‘home’ to the toeroa, a shellfish harvested by digging into the sand at the tideline and during the short season, car loads of people position themselves along the beach and dig for the precious shellfish. Great in fritters!

Leaving Dargaville head down through the Kaipaira coast to Helensville. In Auckland’s infancy, Helensville was a holiday spot for the city dwellers. Now with the advent of motorways, the township is only an hours drive away. Once a sleepy town with a thermal pool complex on the outskirts, today it bustles with new housing developments springing up. But make the time to stop and you won’t be disappointed, especially if you like scavenging in junk, antique and bric-a-brac shops. Lots of treasures to be found along with very friendly locals.

Auckland

Back in Auckland, you’ve a busy time ahead, so get rested.

Auckland is a thriving city. It is the largest city in the country with approximately one million inhabitants in its burgeoning borders which spread out as large as greater London. Most Aucklanders in the past lived in their own homes/lots, now over the last 15 years apartment buildings have sprouted up city-wide and the inner city is once again flourishing. The variety of activities is yours for the choosing, but if you’d like to get an overview of the city before starting, take the double decker bus trip. This trip takes you around the tourist spots and along the way you’ll pass through our beautiful bays. You can hop off at any of the destinations, getting back on the next bus which comes along approximately every hour.

Auckland is a city built on volcanoes. But don’t panic. Most are extinct except for the island of Rangitoto in the harbour. From the air, the island cone appears circular, so that from any vantage point on the mainland it seems the same. But don’t worry, Rangitoto isn’t expected to erupt for about 600 years. Trouble is, just when those 600 years are up, I’m not sure!

Auckland is cited on a narrow isthmus with the Manukau Harbour on one side and the Waitemata on the other. These are Maori names and in English, Waitemata means sparkling water incredibly apt as you spy the glistening waters when driving over the Harbour Bridge - nicknamed the coathanger and Manukau is Wading Birds.

Here We Go - Back to Auckland -2 (Continue)