Day 13: Miles of Kauris and Driving

Early-ish start today and we have driven south east and then south, via Kaitaia and the Raetea Forest, past a deep gorge and through thick forest.  We cut the corner by taking the ferry from Rangiora to Rawene (NZD40 for the van on the ferry) and a fifteen minute journey.  We were fortunate to arrive just before the hour when the ferry was due to leave so did not have to wait for long.

We stopped for a cuppa at the Boathouse Cafe in Rawene (they know how to do coffee and muffins here!)  Leaving Rawene we had the Parataiko Mountain Range ahead of us as we drove to the Waiponia Forest and the giant kauris.

We stopped off to see Tane Mahuta, the largest and longest living kauri tree whose dimensions are:  Trunk height 17.7m, Total height 31.3m, girth 13.8m and thought to be 2000 years old.

These are very spiritual trees.  When we arrived at the viewing point a whole chapter of serious looking biker guys were discussing its beauty in hushed tones.  They were lovely folk and chatted to us before we parted company.  A couple of kilometres down the road we took a walk in the forest to see a group of stately kauris, the four sisters, and then the second largest one still living, Te Matua Ngahere.

The kauris are now a protected species as they were almost wiped out by the gumdiggers.  It was good to see young kauris growing well in the forest, tall and stately with fabulously marked trunks.
From here we drove to Dargaville for fuel and shopping, then it was on to the Kauri Museum, running late - a long day of driving for Tony.  We did not have enough time to do the museum full justice sadly, but still came away with a deep sense of affinity with the kauris and the people who protect them.

Then it was south to Auckland.  Arriving at 6.30 we thought we would miss the Friday commuter traffic but no such luck and we crawled through the northern suburbs, the CBD and then the southern suburbs, arriving later than expected at our wild campsite - Ray's Rest on the Firth of Thames.

This is an amazing site, a flat piece of land covered in thin grasses and shells with the ocean just inches below the shoreline on which several large vans complete with satellite dishes/extra cars etc were already parked.  We fit Oscar the van in to a space and ate a late dinner, with no energy to do more than enjoy the view across to the Coromandel Peninsula from the van.