Left the city and headed north. Soon as we left, the picturesque landscape instantly became apparent - after being in the city for a month it was all the more spectacular.
Our first night was spent in a town called Whangarei around 150kms away, stopped at some places along the way and Hannah became more trigger happy with the camera than a Japanese tourist with a fresh roll of Kodak.
Spent the night in a carpark out the front of a tourist information - well lit and had 24hr toilets. Next day looked around the shops, found ‘Hannah St.’ much to her amusement, then carried on driving north to Russell island (Hannah’s surname being Stewart-Russell).
The road turned out to be 1 ½ hours drive on gravel track, so decided not to break the van on our second day, and instead looked at it from a scenic look out. We did spend this night in the area though, ‘Bay of islands’. Just outside a nature reserve (so not to break any rules about camping) which was on a mountain top over looking giant sand dunes to one side, the Tasmen sea crashing to the shores on the other - very nice to wake up to.
Next morning nice and early we headed across to the west side of the island to Dargaville, on the way we stopped at the biggest Kauri tree in NZ at Waipoua forest. ‘The lord of the forest’ is 31.5 metres tall and 13.8m wide - bludy huge, timber yard would have a field day!
Stopped at a campsite to fill up with water, recharge the battery (Van has two, one for engine, one for fridge, interior lights and other electrical stuff) and get rid of the waste water. We don’t have a toilet onboard so only dirty plates water - no poo involved. Only $12 to use facilities for couple hours whereas around $25-30 to spend the night. Had a shower and lunch then got on our way.
Continued our treck back to Auckland as this is the only way to head south. 700km roundtrip in 3 days. Parked up in a residential area near where we used to live, cooking facilities been perfectly adequate, so apart from toilets and shower we’re self-sufficient.