#172 Nomad Diary. 3-9 February 2024 Road Trip. New Zealand North Island. Whangarei. Far North. Cape Reinga. Giant Sand Dunes. Dargaville.
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| Whangarei Falls, NZ |
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| Above Whangarei Falls, NZ Saturday. 3. Darrell’s getting better after having a cold since Wednesday. He made pancakes in our closet-sized kitchen. We slept in until 7:30 which is late for us. We did a light exercise routine, DDP’s Energy routine. We were eating breakfast at 9am which is really late for us. Darrell called his Mom and they/we talk for up to an hour each week. She and Dad live with Cyndy, Darrell’s sister, in Texas. Today we map out going to see two close waterfalls. Whangarei Falls is quite spectacular with a nice circular walk in woods. We then went to Paranui Falls with a nice walkway through an ancient forest of Kauri trees. The few of these trees that we saw were impressive. We bought a few items at the grocery and made chicken soup for dinner. Tonight’s recipe included: cooking in a provided electric skillet; chicken broth cubes with added water, bring to a boil and add in chicken tenders, cut up kale, sliced mushrooms, sliced carrot, chopped garlic clove, and Italian seasoning mix. We had plenty of cheese and crackers too. Sunday. 4. We cooked a nice breakfast of eggs and toast, avocado, jam and strong french press coffee. We have directions to meet with a church at one of the members homes at 10 am. We arrived about 10 minutes till and visit a bit with the man who lives there. He’s Danny and moved from South Africa 5 years ago with his family. Over the next few minutes several more people arrived of all different cultural backgrounds. We sang hymns, had Bible readings, prayers, communion and a sermon presented by Clint, a Maori man. We stayed after worship and visited some more. We left after 1pm and came back to our airbnb and rested on our deck. I fixed myself some lunch as Darrell wasn’t hungry. Later around 4pm we went back to Whangarei Falls and took an hour walk beside the river. We got back and ate dinner. The evening is mild, sunny and clear. It’s quite a nice evening to sit on our deck. |
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| We Can Thank These Chickens for the Yummy Eggs |
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| View of Our Airbnb Just Behind the Owners Home Monday. 5. Today is moving day. We are driving north about 2-3 hours to our next 3 night stay on our current road trip. We booked an airbnb at Henderson Bay, one hour drive south of Cape Reinga at the tip top of North Island, New Zealand. We have 3 nights here. The place is an old barn that the owners have lived in and outfitted now for their visiting family and an airbnb rental. It’s lovely at the barn house! Today I started to come down with a cold. Likely I got it from Darrell as he is almost recovered from his cold. |
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| Exploring the Beach Near Cape Reinga. Pacific Side. |
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| Screenshot of Call with Eric, Owen and Esther |
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| The Giant Dunes |
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| Walking to the Edge to Slide Tuesday. 6. Today I felt good enough to take the hour drive up to Cape Reinga. It’s the farthest north point on North Island, New Zealand. There’s a lighthouse to walk out to. The views of the coastline are spectacular. Our day is clear. This is a popular place and there’s many others taking the walk out to the lighthouse. We got back to our car and looked for the closest picnic area where we could go and have our lunch that we packed with us. It was maybe a 15 minute drive down a gravel road with switch backs all the way to a beach and a campground. It’s very nice. We enjoyed our lunch and then walked out to the beach and explored for a little while. We drove back up the gravel road to the highway up at the top of the mountain. Then we drove a little further to the Giant Sand Dunes. We parked and rented boards. We got a few instructions from the woman renting sliding boards and asked how long it takes to climb up there. She told us that the shorter dune was a 10 minute hike and the taller one was 14 minutes up. We liked crossing the stream and getting our feet wet as we began to hike up the shorter dune. Darrell hiked higher than me and made an attempt at a couple of slope slides. They were slow going. I tried one slow slope slide. Then we both were at the top of the steep fast downhill. He videoed me as I slid down. I didn’t want to climb the hill again! I got distracted when Darrell slid and didn’t video him! Lol. We walked back and turned in our boards and went to our car. Darrell had lost his keys! So we walked back to those dunes to retrace our steps and hopefully find the small black plastic square key fob. Darrell climbed ahead of me to his highest point. I prayed for God to help me find the key. I cut across to the base of where I remembered his second slow slide to be. I could still see the marks his slide made in the sand. I saw what I hoped was the black square key. It could be a small rock. I walked closer and it was the key!! Yay!! Another prayer. This time of thanks for finding the key. I got the key and motioned to him where he was higher on the dunes. We walked as quickly as we could down the very hot dunes! We got back to our car so thankful we had the energy to climb the dunes a second time, and that we easily found the key!! |
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| Henderson Bay Beach |
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| The Chickens Found Me at Our Airbnb. Far North. Wednesday. 7. We did laundry. The clothesline was great and the close sun helps drying time go fast! We went down Henderson Bay road next to our barnhouse to the beach at the end of the road. We walked around and enjoyed it. We went and got a real fruit ice cream and pies for dinner at a food truck called Honey Bees. The pies were very different from the Fairlie Bakehouse but were equally as delicious. So far these two places have had our favorite pies in NZ. |
Thursday. 8. Drive to Dargaville for two nights at an airbnb apartment in an old schoolhouse. We arrive after grocery shopping in town. The place is very cool! It’s on a road with car noise, but we get through that with our ear plugs and the air conditioner.
Friday. 9. We drove to the end of the peninsula and walked around the beach. We got some fun reflection pictures there. We enjoyed cooking in our kitchen, doing laundry and relaxing as much as possible. It was really a fun and beautiful apartment to stay in. I loved the high ceiling and the old woodwork.
Nomad Notes:
We are enjoying our pace of three night stays along our road trip. Most of the tourism here is about the scenery. The scenery is often spectacular! We are keeping our drives as short as possible. Having down time in nice apartments and houses is a plus especially when we had to deal with colds over the last couple of weeks.
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