Trip to Auckland and North - March 20 - 30, 2012

We were asked to travel to Auckland and train a newly arrived couple on probate digitization.  The Auckland office of Archives New Zealand was beginning there project that is similar in size to Wellington and the Spencers had arrived the week before.  We flew up Tuesday night the 20th and went in the 21st to start the training.  Unfortunately the equipment didn't work so we had to extend our stay until the 30th.  All went well after the weekend so "all is well that ends well"!

Here's Jenet & Orlo Spencer being trained

We had a rental car so Saturday morning we got up and headed north with the intention of getting all the way up to the northern tip of the north island.  We bounced along the east coast on the way up and arrived too late to finish the final 100km so we got a motel room in Awanui.  We then got up early Sunday morning intending to get up to Cape Reinga early, see the sites and come back to Kaitaia to attend church....how do you say "best laid plans of mice & men"?

It took longer than expected...da...and we missed church by 30 minutes so we headed south back to Auckland.  All in all, it was a great trip and we've now seen most of the northern part of the north island.  Different than the south as you will see, but none the less very beautiful.  The map below details the trip route with the blue the trip north and the red the trip back south.

Auckland

Auckland is a beautiful metropolitan city with nearly 1.5 million residents in the greater area.  The "Sky Tower" is the needle in the middle and is known by all Kiwi's.

On of the must visits in Auckland is "One Tree Hill".  It's sort of in the middle of the city and from there you can see all around.  Actually the "One Tree" is now gone and a monument is in its place.



Looking south and yes,
 sheep still all around



Letter's in the rocks below.

A beautiful wreath at the
 base of the monument

Auckland is actually built on top of

inactive volcano's as you can see below!



Up the East Coast North of Auckland

Here's the Whangarei (pronounced Fangarei) chapel. 
We say small chapels in about every city north!

This is Whangarei Falls just outside of town.  Worth the stop and walk around

To the northeast of Whangarei is a 30-40 mile stretch of bays with hundreds of small islands.  This is Tutukaka Harbor

This is Woolley's Bay



Another Chapel in Kawakawa



We had to stop off at "Bay of Islands" & Waitangi where in 1840 the treaty between the Maori chiefs and Britain was signed.

We visited the Treaty grounds and because we had New Zealand drivers licenses, we were free.  Otherwise it was like $20 each.  This site is a good one to study about the treaty:
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/Gallery/treaty-sigs/index.htm



William Hobson with the
British representative

This is King Tamati Waaka Nene

Traditional Maori Attire

One of the female signers

Copy of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi



View of "Bay of Islands" from the Treaty grounds





The Treaty House of Waitangi



The British Residence



Two large Maori War Canoes

Cape Reinga

We travelled north from Waitangi and spent the night in Awanui.  Then got up at 6 to travel north for an hour to catch the sunrise from the cape.  Well worth the trip!

I'll just have a select of photo's in and around the Cape.

After visiting Cape Reinga we headed back down the Cape

We came around a corner and I said to myself, "this would be wonderful turkey ground" and sure enough, a flock of wild turkeys.  Upon investigation, there is a hunting season here.



On down the cape with a swing west to "90-Mile Beach"



 

The gravel road to 90-Mile Beach

Up and over the fence to the beach....
can you believe no hotels????

We're then off down the mail north island to Omapere shown below and Hokianga Harbour & Sand Tobogganing on the other side of the Harbour

An Anglican Chapel and and LDS Chapel in Omapere

 

Wrapping up the 3-hour drive south back to Auckland

What a beautiful 1,200km (700 miles) trip.  Worth every minute of it.  Day one was rainy, and we'd like to see the east coast "Bay of Islands" in the evening but just beautiful!