Road Trippin' Part 2.

So here is the promised part two. 

On day two we headed over to Waitangi Treaty Grounds & House. It's basically the place where New Zealand became part of the British Empire, although it's a lot more complicated and controversial than that. The grounds are nice and peaceful, looking out over the bay of islands. They have a huuuuuuge waka (canoe) with beautiful intricate carvings. It was built to commemorate something, but I've forgotten. I'm a bad tourist.

By the treaty house there is a meeting house, each panel representing a different Iwi in New Zealand. 

Next we headed over to the treaty house. There was a dress up box so I got in the spirit of things and dressed all 1840s in my bonnet pinafore. Obviously the clothes were for children, but I reckon we styled it out pretty well. 

I got some lols in the treaty house. This display clearly shows that this is where the inspiration for 'The Village' came from. 

A house within a house? Houseception. 

We stopped off for lunch in Mangonui and had delish lasagna with a roast vegetable salad on the waterfront. 

It was divine.

It was also comforting to know as we were driving round Northland that there was only ever a low fire danger.

We continued on our drive up to Cape Reinga. Once we hit the home stretch it was 100km of nothingness. Just us, the countryside and some staunch poultry. Seriously, there were turkeys and chickens out in the road, among all the roadkill possums.

We finally made it to Cape Reinga and headed to the lighthouse. It's the place where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific ocean. The water was a beautiful green blue and ever so choppy. The place was just beautiful. I love the sounds of the ocean.

On our way back down, we took a detour and drove 20 minutes down a dirt track wondering if we'd ever actually make it to 90 mile beach. We made it to the beach, seriously, beach for as far as you can see.

We managed to get some signal on our phone and booked to stay the night in Ahipara. It's at the bottom of 90 mile beach and it's a gorgeous place. We got ourselves some chippy and headed down to the beach to watch the sunset. And take pictures. As we sat there it was like we were on the beach set of the Last Song.

The next day we began the journey back to Auckland. We came across this beautiful place, which I can't remember the name of, but they loved a dolphin there. Not only was there two statues of this dolphin, it was also buried outside the village hall.

We stopped off in the middle of the forest to check out a Kauri tree. And it was huuuuuuge.

We got to Dargaville, a place famous for growing potatoes. There wasn't much there but we drove up to a museum on the top of a hill where they have the mast from the Rainbow Warrior.

We then decided to take another beach rest and headed to Baylys beach. Somewhere between Dargaville and Baylys beach my camera battery died. Woe is me. For that reason, I have no pictures to prove how gorgeous the beach and the surfers were was. Must. Go. Back. To. Baylys.

After lunch we continued on road, finally made it back to Auckland and then I bade farwell to Sarah and Hamish as they drove off into the sunset.