We got up this morning and packed ourselves up, ready to leave Auckland. We had a very comfortable en-suite room in a back-packers' hostel. It is large and modern and right opposite the Town Hall, just one block from the station. Another great convenience is that it has a kitchen so you can make your own breakfast - or any other meals - and it has a generous supply of washing machines and dryers. I have been greatly intrigued by the sparrows here. Today we had breakfast on the sun terrace, and I hand-fed bits of cereal to one of the sparrows. They fly into the kitchen to beg crumbs, and Paul said some of them spend the night in the kitchen - when he went in at 6 am yesterday, 3 or 4 of them were all lined up waiting to go out!
We walked round to the station and caught a bus to the airport, and were then picked up at the terminal and taken to the car we had hired. While we were in the bus on the way to the airport, it rained hard, but fortunately it had gone off by the time we arrived, and the sun had come out.
The car is an automatic, so I have had to keep shouting 'don't change gear' at Paul, who so used to a manual gearbox he is finding it quite difficult to adjust. We had decided to go north, because the tour we are joining in a few days goes south from Auckland, and I want to go north to see the Bay of Islands.
Unfortunately, the roads were not well signposted, so on the way back from the airport we got extremely lost. The airport is to the south of Auckland so we had to drive right through the city and it's just as well we had walked all round the central area and had a vague idea of which direction to take otherwise we might still be there. There were plenty of signs to places like Balmoral and Sandringham, but none to the north!
Once out of Auckland, the road was really scenic and the views were terrific. Unfortunately, there were no stopping places. On the motorway, you can hardly stop to take photos, and once off the motorway, there is only one lane in each direction; stopping would not be popular with the impatient Kiwi drivers behind us. Driving according to the speed limits does not seem to be the norm here! So we appreciated the green hills, the sharp volcanic peaks, the deep valleys, the colourful wildflowers, the dark green forests that clothe many of the steep hillsides, but we couldn't take any photos!
Our lunch stop was just north of Auckland, and we made a stop for coffee about 3. The view from the coffee stop was quite nice, so I did manage to get a picture of that.
We reached Whangarei about 4, and made a quick stop at the visitor centre where we were directed to the Whangarei Falls, which my guide book calls 'probably the most photographed waterfall in New Zealand' and you can see why. The falls themselves are absolutely beautiful.
You can drive your car right up to them. The whole area is beautiful, and there are some lovely walks which are well-maintained and well signposted. The walks take you through the woods and give you lovely views of the river as well as the falls. This one is from near the falls.
The one below is from the bridge you can see in the previous picture.
We found a place to stay near the falls, and may take another walk there tomorrow, weather permitting, before continuing our journey north.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment