Oct 6: Muriwai Beach

Because our van was in the garage a little longer than we thought, we are a little behind schedule- so we have to cut out Karekare beach, where some scenes of "The Piano" were shot. Oh well, so we don't get to act out the movie, we just can't see everything.
We went to Muriwai beach, another nice coastal area and home of the famous gannet colony- gannets are birds that for some reason have chosen this area to nest and raise their young. They mate for life, fly as far as Australia, and always come back to this site to nest.
Also saw a couple seals sunning themselves at the bottom of the cliffs.

Oct. 4-5: Whatipu Beach

Now that our van is registered and on the road, we stopped at the local Pak'n'Save (kiwi No-Frills) to pickup supplies, food, chilly bin, a case of cheap Kiwi Lager, a couple cheap NZ wines, and we're on tour...
Auckland is a nice city, but it's nice to get out and see the countryside where all the real gems are.
Our First stop on our week-and-a-half tour of the Northland (everything north of Auckland) is Whatipu Beach - one hour west of Auckland, and an amazing hilly, rugged landscape.
We stayed at Whatipu Lodge, a beautifull place right by the sea, with cabins you can rent. But we just stayed in our van on the camping grounds, with toilets, shelter/cooking area, and cold showers.
We visited the nearby caves, and on the Sunday we did an amazing hike called the Omanawanui/Kura Track - a true great walk on its own, but a good leg workout- the track starts going straight up the seaside cliffs with lots of scrambling over rocks, then gives a stunning view of the area for miles from the top.
It then follows along the hills for a while, before decending straight down, crossing the road, and down to the valley in between the hills.
It then follows the river, criss-crosses it in a few places (glad we brought sandals too!) and ends back at the campground to complete the loop. We took about 5 hours on it in total, but what a variety of scenery: coastal cliffs and Kauri forest, then Jungle-ish palms and ferns in the valley, its really a bit of everything. Slept good that night!

Oct 2: So We Got a Van!

We are at the beginning of the traveler/tourist season where everyone comes into Auckland to travel for the summer, so backpacker vans are going quick- we visited the backpacker car market on the weekend, but didn't see any we liked. Looked at a few through local classifieds, and pulled the trigger on a 1996 Nissan Largo- a real, made-in-japan Nissan, engine is under the seat (have to lift up the passenger seat to check the oil), spare tire under the hood.
2.4L 4 cyl, 250,000kms. Queen-sized mattress built into the back, storage underneath the mattress.
Jill named it "Champion", and a champion it will be if it makes the year long trip through the 2 islands. We got some maintenance done on it, and now we can just cross our fingers and hope for the best.
Amazingly little rust for an 18 year-old vehicle, compared to our cars in Canada, I looked underneath and there is none except on the end of the exhaust.
It may look worse than how Bubbles lives on Trailer Park Boys, but its surprisingly comfortable sleeping in there. I think we like it better than hostels.