Tuesday 3rd March- Go North whilst the sun is still shining

What a glorious day again, the sun was blazing down and by eight thirty am it was getting very warm. We actually got up early to call our daughter on Skype but failed, shame as we could have stayed in bed a bit longer.

It took us a little while to pack up the tent and make certain that it was fully clean and dry and in the meantime we had breakfast and watched the other guests at the park cook up all sorts of morning breakfast menus.

We left Waihi at about eleven thirty am and headed in the direction of Auckland and again went through the gorge and this time took some photos from the car, lets see how they come out. We continued on via Pearoa, which is famous for its soft drink called L & P, and then hit the State Highway One heading north to Auckland. We arrived in South Auckland around lunchtime and it took about an hour driving from North to South of Auckland City and over the famous Auckland Harbour Bridge. The journey then continued North on the new toll road and passed through Silverdale and Warkworth and continued up to Brynderwyn where we turned West on SH 12 in the direction of Dargaville.

A little food shopping in Dargavile and the weather was still very warm indeed and we finally arrived at the Kauri Coast Top 10 Holiday Park which is situated in a wooded valley and surrounded by rivers. We double checked the weather as if it was going to be fine for three days then we would use the tent but if not we would stay two nights and rent a small cabin. So it was the cabin as we do not want to take any chance that we cannot have a dry tent should we decided to take the tent back to UK.

This site is very nice indeed and as mentioned it is in a valley and surrounded by rivers which are good for fishing and swimming. There is a school party here camping and so it’s a little noisy with exited kids running around and so we assume they must have arrived today.

Tomorrow we plan to perhaps visit Dargaville and also the Kauri Tree forest and then generally take it easy. The bad weather is due to start on Wednesday afternoon and with heavy rain forecast for Thursday and Friday we shall probably go to Brian and Sheila perhaps a day early as there is no point in sightseeing in the heavy rain also the Holiday Park is quite booked up from Thursday night we understand.

We are also beginning to feel a little tired as we have done quite a bit of travelling, around 5000 kilometres we think, and have had some very cold and wet times and so our thoughts are beginning to turn to home, hopefully the weather is better now.