New Zealand -One week tour by car of Northland with Baileys Tours .

After leaving Ruakaka, we went further up North and headed for a famous coastal area on the North East Coast of New Zealand.  The area was called the 'Bay of Islands'  We visited a couple of Holiday Parks on the way to Paihia, before deciding on a holiday park called 'Beachside'. Wow! we thought the other campsite was good, this was smaller  and more pituresque,  just perfect for what we wanted. We hired a cabin again for about $50 dollars per night, this was fully equiped for self catering.(the weather was still a bit unpredictable, so camping was out of the question) We stayed on this site for about 5 nights (the most nights for about 7 weeks where we have stayed in the same place).
I couldn't get Steve to leave as  he now owned a fishing rod and had found a great place to fish. There were also loads of walks to do, two of the walks were straight from the campsite, which led to  the various bays surrounding the coasts and the campsite. One of the walks was to Opua and the other was to Paihia, the views were something else,as you always had a view of the bays, boats, woodland/bush, all of which had massive ferns and  tropical vegetation  It is also the first time we have seen as many board walks. What really gave us the wow factor was we just kept discovering one secluded beach after another. Obviously this is why they call it the 'Bay of islands'

Our home for 5 days on Beachside
Holiday park, Paihia

Steve on the board walk

Campside view

View from Opua

Land of the giants

One of the many secluded beaches- walk from
Opua to Paihia

While we were staying at the 'Bay of islands' we were told by many other travellers that it is a 'must' to go to  the island of Russel.  This island was famous for being the first settlement area in 1825, it had the first pub and church it was also famous for a brothel.  The only way you could get there was by ferry. The population was 1000 people so a fairly small place.

We found the island a bit strange, the locals dressed up every day for the tourists in clothing back to the 18th century, after spending a couple of hours there we were sure that the locals actually felt they were back in the 18th century as when there street stage act finished they were still playing the part.  How strange! We were not totally impressed, we felt the locals perhaps tried a bit too hard to

please the tourists

Two hookers fighting

Over the week we did really well and covered a fair few miles walking, probably covered approx 20 miles  in total. The Waitangi walk was good, there were some really good views and  the waterfall was impressive.

Maouri boat, on the river durng our walk to  Haruro Falls

Haruro Falls

We have continuously found the  people from New Zealand really freindly and welcoming.

 This week has been a good time to catch up, doing the things we hoped we would do, lots of walking(certainley covered a few miles), reading and fishing. 

The Bay of Islands have spectacular views, and has been well worth the visit.  It will take a bit of beating

After leaving the Bay of Islands we travelled on the west coast heading for the top of Northland, which was famous for its 90 mile beach.  The journey should have taken two hours, but instead it ended up about three and a half hours due to a sat nav, that we no longer trust. We spent quite some time on scenic routes, which had nice views , but the paths were unsealed gravel paths, sometimes no wider than a household driveway. Some of the bends were quite scary, apparently one of the roads had been used for the Northland car rally the day before. When finally getting to the 90 mile beach we did not stick around too long as it was fairly cold.  There were a few surfers on the beach, not something we wanted to venture into as the water looked a bit nippy.

We decided at this point we were not going to venture up to Reigna, this is the bit on the map that looks like a steeple.  This was a dead end road, and looked very flat and sandy. We don’t think we will have missed alot

The plan was to tour the west cost and take the scenic route, this was our choice not the sat nav.  It was a great drive until the road came to an end. On the map it looked like a bridge, but it was a car ferry which only crossed the sea every hour.  We continued down the cost and ended up in kaouri forest where we found the biggest tree on the southern hemisphere, it was very impressive.  The photo didn’t do it justice unfortunately.

We continued down the coastal road  looking for camps as it was getting dark, late and raining we found one quite aptly called’ Bayley’s Beach’, which was ok for an overnight stop, again it was a surfers paradise , similar to the 90 mile beach, but was only 6 miles long.

The next morning we set back off towards Auckland and stopped at a place called Matakhoie to shorten the journey. This was a nice holiday park, we were the only people staying so we had a good choice of accommodation.  We stayed in a nice little detached cottage.  This was perfect as the heavens opened with rain that evening, glad once again we were not in a tent. We got up the  following day and headed for the Auckland Airport to fly to the South Island, Christ Church where we were ready for our next tour of the southern Island for a month. The flight worked out much cheaper than by car and ferry. Now we are looking forward to seeing South Island.

90 mile beach

Kauri Tree

We have really enjoyed North Island, but we are equally as excited about visiting the South Island as so many people that we have met during our travels have told us how much we will enjoy the South Island.

New Zealand,Twelve days on North Island - by car with Baileys Tours .

After our scary experience getting over to New Zealand it is nice to say the last 12 days have been yet another great experience.

Our first night in Auckland we stayed in a Bed and breakfast, which was in a residential area about 20 minutes taxi ride from the Rugby ground. However on the internet it did say 20 minutes’ walk (misprint I think). It was not our favorite place we have stayed to date, but it was in Auckland and the accommodation was like gold dust.

The build- up to the rugby match was electric, which is what we anticipated when knowing that we were playing the Scots. We met loads of lovely ex pats Scottish and English who now live in New Zealand who were very excited about the game. After a drink or two we arrived at Eden Park we were still compasmentous even though Steve kept giving lots of people knighthoods, before and after the game. (He was allowed as he was dressed as St George and I was his English maiden. )Apres match was  good and an after the game celebration was in order. Not good the next day as we both had a bit of a hangover.

We left Auckland late Sunday afternoon, after hiring a car for a week. We then headed for Turangi which is an area renowned for skiing of which was our next plan.  We arrived at a holiday park called Turangi holiday park, which was situated next to a residential area.  Due to a bit of rain we decided it was not yet time to take out our tent (which was carried all the way from Bejing to Hong  Kong).  We stayed in a cabin which was a small wooden hut, very basic, it had one double bed and a heater.  What more could we ask for on a rainy night?We stayed there for a couple of nights, which gave us time to check the area out. The country side was absolutely stunning.  The place is well known for famous walks, tramping as they call it, white water rafting, skiing and we also found out to our delight that there were thermal mineral pools, which feed off the hot natural springs. This was something else!   

Steve in thermal pool fed off the springs below 42 degrees



Outdoor natural thermal springs

We decided to go up market for a couple of days after that while we were waiting for the ski slopes  to open.We therefore stayed in a static caravan in Mutuoapa situated on the  lake called Taupo, (the largest lake in New Zealand). This place was only 10 minutes North from the last campsite, but it was a nicer holiday park and was on the lake. The holiday park had a communal kitchen, which was ideal to use for cooking, you could also watch tv whilst slaving over the stove. This was the first time we had watched Tv for over a month. We made potato and leek soup and spag bol which was the first thing we had cooked for quite a while!.

Static carvan at Mutuoapa



Lake Tapu

View from the caravan  onto lake Taupu

When we were looking around at the accommodation in New Zealand this seemed to be quite the norm to have kitchen facilities.  Over the past 12 days the facilities on the camp sites have just got better and better. Most of the sites have a communal living room, kitchen, barbecue area and fantastic grounds.  We especially looked for sites situated near water, so you can imagine there are lots to choose from.

Unfortunately the ski slopes were closed for two days, but when they did finally open wow! They were very impressive and not too busy.  We did find out about the hole in the ozone layer as both Steve and I ended up with beetroot goggle eyes.

To make the journey back to Auckland a bit more interesting we decided to stay at Raglan, a small surfing and beach resort on the East Cost of North Island, a lovely site on an inlet to the sea.  It was the first time we had fish and chips for ages.  We had a good Friday night, with pre match drinks getting ready for the big build up again on Saturday.

We set off early on Saturday for Auckland and arrived there by 1pm we decided to treat ourselves to a studio with self- catering facilities, quite posh. Back home in January, when trying to pre book any accommodation it was impossible as everything on the internet was showing it was full, so we were fairly lucky to find accommodation as nice as this

Studio Apartment in Auckland

After the game Steve sulked and wanted to go straight back to our apartment (our world cup dream is now over)

On the Sunday after the game we decided to head up North and do a bit more touring, we have now to concentrate on our travels, as we don’t have to stay within a 4 hour radius of Auckland, we won’t be going to any more live games, but will still follow the rugby through the Tv, wherever our destination will be.
Our first destination was Ruakaka, this place was absolutely gorgeous; it was definitely like something from a post card, so unspoilt.  It is unbelievable how quite all the parks have been so far, not what we expected while the world cup was on

Ruakaka- view from the tent

We have already fallen in Love with New Zealand, each journey surprises us by its beauty, the friendliness of the people and the organisation of the country which is exceptional. What we also like are the roads which are well signposted and easy to get around. There are numerous amounts of walks in each area all of which are signposted stating expected duration of the walk.  As mentioned earlier all the campsites we have seen so far have communal kitchens, barbecue areas and TV rooms.  When travelling about there are also loads of picnic areas equipped with barbecues and picnic tables. What more could we ask for? The only snag we have seen during our 1600km journey so far is there is great distances between each town and petrol station so you have to be well orgnaised with food and petrol. The other little snag is there are also not a lot of bars.

We stopped by the road one of the days to find this picnic area,

The weather has been a bit British but mild as it rain ones day and then is boiling the next, but it is their spring so this is what is expected at this time of year.

 Bailey's tours had three fairly strange things happen to us this week!


 We had to pick up our tent still erect and move it to a different place on a campsite, at 1pm in the morning as at the time we felt a bit vulnerable. We were the only people with a tent and situated in a field on our own, the noises of people chanting and running in the field next to us was fairly frightening.  It sounds a bit daft now but it felt we were going to be under attack.  It wasn’t much really once we found out the next day what it was as it was  just a bit of anti-social behavior with some drunken mouries, but at that time of the morning we were a bit scared, better to be on the safe side and hide behind the caravans.
 The second campsite we arrived at which was at Ruakaka,( the most picturesque campsite so ), we could not believe it we were woken up to a loud  siren going off which sounded like something from an air raid, you can imagine at the time panic set in, all sorts of things went through our mind, earth quake, tsunami?? We found out the next day it was a practice alarm as a warning to people if there is a forest fire.  How were we to know
The third strange thing this week was when we went for a walk to find Waipu caves, it was about one hours walk up in the hills, stunning views and the foliage was something else, we haven’t actually seen ferns so big.

We were enjoying the walk and then out of nowhere there came big black and white bird which started to attack us, we had to duck a few times and then run into hiding.  It was definitely out for attack.  There was no way we were going any further as this bird was not going to let us.  When we finally found the caves we got talking to some of the locals and they highlighted that these birds were a nightmare, apparently it is the Australian Magpie, bigger than ours back home.  They said that these birds will attack when protecting their young, apparently we must have been in their territory.  It was like something out of a Hithcock movie scary!  We carried a stick all the way home, it reminded us of the walk in china when we were defending ourselves from the monkeys 

Sticks to fight the bird

We have just googled this picture from images, we did not hang around to take pictures of the bird attacking us.

Australian Magpie

 All part of the adventure and fun of Bailey’s tours!