Nicky gives it the once over, “just like Cornwall… but MASSIVE” she says.
Cookie with Cape Maria van Diemen in the background
The cape in the background was named by Abel Tasman after the wife of his patron, Anthony van Diemen. It is - along with the Three Kings Islands - one of only two geographic features in New Zealand to retain the names given to them by Abel Tasman. Cheers Wikipedia! Well I’m not sure if Maria was a looker, but the cape named after her isn’t too shabby.
Ahipara to Deep Within the Herekino Forest
I was eager to get into the jungle after the epically long ’90 mile beach’. I’d been pretty excited on the approach up the hill to see how the forest trees and kauri were mixed in with giant ferns and palm trees of all sorts. Proper jungle! I have a bit of a thing about palm trees having grown up in Cornwall. And this didn’t disappoint, stuffed full of cordyline australis, vines, tree ferns and even date palms, paired with exotic sounding bird calls. Woohoo tropical!
A leisurely 5 mile road walk out of town ended abruptly when we entered the Herekino Forest, it felt like we stumbled into Apocalypse Now / Vietnam jungle rather than a ‘forest’. It’s nothing like forest walks back home, in fact it was more like doing an assault course than going for a walk!
Very beautiful though, and really interesting as just about everything growing is totally new and fascinating to me.
It’s actually been a pretty grey day with a few showers, but managed to grab this quick pic of the bay while the sun was kind of shining. Maybe it was the weather, but found the Bay of Islands wasn’t quite as picturesque as I was expecting?Postman Pat Fields
The hills by the sea in the Northland seem to be so humped and bumped in an almost cartoon way. Very similar to the way Cookie’s drawn them above funnily enough. Really gorgeous vibrant green to look at, and all textured with rippling grooves and ledges reminiscent of rice fields. I assume the cattle and sheep carve the steep slopes into stepped highways after years of grazing. You don’t often see too many sheep near the roads though… as we’ve heard stories from farmers about sheep rustling !! ;) Really!
Sunset at Waikahoa Bay
Some great views here gazing over the sea as the sun went down eating our instant pasta dinner. But it tasted good :)
Just found out that with the cameras aperture set to minimum seems to make the sun look like a star, cool :)Okupe Beach
Miles of gorgeous white sandy beaches lay ahead and the way down towards Whananaki North. We got some awesome shots. Wish we could have stayed here longer. We followed the coast as long as we could - a bit of a detour from the official trail - but it got us in a spot of bother when we lost our way and ended up on some private beach. Luckily the owner was very reasonable and we were soon on our way.
Sunrise over Awanue Rock at Ocean Beach
This is one morning I wish I’d gotten up early for! Amazing shots here Cookie! The scene looked stunning enough the evening before, but this is something else. Note to self: Must get up earlier!Woke up this morning and stuck my head out the tent to see the whole sky lit up red with this sunrise. Quickly grabbed my camera and tripod, bare feet scrambling over rocks, then legged it down the beach just in time to get these shots.
Trying to do that blurry water thing, wishing I had a ND filter on me to increase the exposure time..
