First Roadtrip North - Hokianga Harbor

 

Hokianga Harbor was a surprise, while when I was looking at the map I thought it would be neat to see this very large harbor I had not expected it to be as beautiful as it was. 

 

Part of the beauty was just the amazing colors that made up the area. One side of the harbor mouth are these giant golden sand dunes. And the water was just an odd blue.

There were lots of great bachs along the road, I really couldn't help but think this would be a perfect weekend get away spot, just picture perfect.

 



 

As I got into the town the beach was all these little cliffs and scattered with boulders that were really colorful.

I went out to the headland and did the short little walks out in the area, there is a multi day beach walk there you can do that would probably be pretty amazing. There are little camping areas along the beach that you walk along. I would have loved to explore a little more but the weather was starting to catch up with me. I think it made for some pretty pictures of the storm coming in across the harbor, not so much of a nice day for a picnic though. 

 

It was also funny the way that when you looked to one direction the weather was all beautiful and clear, to the other direction you could see the rain pouring down.

 

Since the weather wasn't quite the best for a picnic as I had planned at the headland, I decided to drive on while it was raining in hopes it would clear by the time that I made it to my next spot!

First Road Trip North - The Great Kauri Trees

I headed south from Hokianga Harbor and I made it to one of the best and largest Kauri forests in New Zealand, Waipoua Forest.  

 

The area is home to some of the largest and oldest Kauri trees and was really a beautiful spot to walk and see these amazing trees.

 

This tree was pretty amazing to see, it was just so big and so old, it made you realize how small we are and how young we are compared to something this old. There was a real presence to being near this tree.  

 

I was also impressed with the efforts that they have went to in protecting this area and these trees. Kauri tree roots are very shallow and people walking on them can kill the trees. Because of this and the value the country places on conservation they built board walks which were raised so that people will not harm the trees but we can walk out and see this giant. But their kiwi ingenuity doesn't end there, they really try to save all the trees they can, a lot of places would have just cut this leaning tree over to make the pathway clear and safe, but here they made a support beam for the leaning tree instead. All of this takes a lot of hard work and impressive design.

 

 

I really was wishing it hadn't started raining and that I had more time. I would have like to just sit and soak in the view here. I also like to think it would have improved my photos to not have to pull out the camera and try to keep it dry while snapping pictures. 

 

Standing right next to this tree was crazy to see. I have never seen the redwoods in California but now I really want to.



 

 

The Four Sisters were my favorite though. These four trees all spring from the same base and set of roots. Apparently there are lots of triplets but these four are much more rare.

Sadly the rain made some of my pictures blurry and me nervous, but the effect but kind of neat. 

 

 

This was the last big guy that I went to see, the rain was coming down pretty good by this point so I just got these two pictures, and I know there is a way to paste them together, but I haven't gotten that far in my self tutorial of photo editing. So you'll have to do a little imagining. His sign is a little blurry too.

 

While I won't say I'm a "tree hugger" by any means, all of these big beautiful trees seem so special they really do seem like something that should be protected and preserved. I'm glad the logging industry didn't get all of the "giants" :)

First Road Trip North - Wairere Boulders

One of my first stops of the day was at the Wairere Boulders south of the Hokianga Harbor. This is actually a private park that the owners have created after realizing how interesting and geologically special the valley of boulders they have are. They have built all the trails through the valley including the bridges and landings. 

 

I met Rita at the start of the trails and she made sure I had a map and wanted to make sure that I signed the guest book. One of the family members is always at the start to welcome guests. It was a quiet morning and so I almost had the little park to myself.

 

The bridges and any wood really did prove a bit concerning in the park. After my recent run in with a wasp I was in no hurry to have a second sting but all of the wooden bridges and railings had wasps swarming all over them. I was told later it was because they were after the water in the wood. I just knew that I wanted to spend more time on the bridges, but ended up dashing across to keep away from the wasps.

 

But other than the wasps it was a great walkway with some amazingly big boulders. There were even a few spots where you got to squeeze through the little spaces in between them.

This tree was almost identical to a couple of the trees that I took pictures of when I was back in Sedona. Amazing what the wind can make trees look like.

 



 

The boulders are special here because they are fluted basalt boulders which is extremely rare, normally fluted boulders are out of limestone.

 

 

Nice little walk and such a friendly owner of the property, she met me at the end and wanted to know what I thought. She even gave me a big bag of apples from her little orchard. They were a nice little roadtrip treat.