Today we took a pretty casual drive up from Auckland to the Bay of Islands. We had taken the Motorway 1 up to Whangarei (about 2 hours from Auckland), where we stopped for lunch at a charming Italian restaurant serving $10 lunches. We also took the time to check out a used bookstore, where Dan nearly cried when he saw all the cheap books that he could get for our future library. If we weren’t packing light for the whole year, I’m sure he would’ve bought a whole bunch.
We’re now in the town of Russell, staying at a ‘Top 10 Holiday Park’, it’s a chain of campgrounds all over NZ. We may stay in these type of campgrounds if we can’t find hostels. Russell is a quaint town, and they offer cruise tours to other islands in the bay. The drive here from Whangarei was AWESOME! We took the scenic route, which was a mix of the postcard hills/sheep and coastline.
Tomorrow’s plans are to go to Ahipara (about 2.5 hours drive) and stay 2 nights there, because the following day we’ll be doing a day trip to Cape Reinga, NZ’s northernmost point and then back down to Ahipara.
I think the ferry might be a little pricey, and since we’ve got all day for so short a drive, we might as well economize this time 🙂
Plus I’m getting a kick out of the roads here. Once we got off the main highway the drive yesterday looked pretty much like this:
This is fun!
I follow your trip through Google Earth and as if i am there with you!
I even went in and roam the camp in Russell!
So you gonna take the short cut back to Motorway 1 in the ferry?
Cape Reinga seems far and desolate place…