We drove up the Kauri Coast and visited the giant kauri trees in the Waipoua Forest. This is Te Matua Ngahere, the second largest tree remaining in the forest...
...this is Tane Mahuta, the largest kauri tree. It's hard to show the size of these giants in photos, Tane Mahuta is 18 metres to the first branch and 4.4 metres in diamater. Tane Mahuta is around 2,000 years old and Te Matua Ngahere is between 2,500 and 3,000 years old. There were very few visitors so we walked amongst these giants almost alone.
Next stop, the Hokianga Harbour entrance. Then we drove down to Omapere and Opononi.
The visitor centre and cafe on the waterfront are new since our last visit. We had lunch here, then wandered around the village.
The famous statue commemorating Opo the dolphin, who delighted swimmers by playing with them in 1955. nearby there was a wall with murals depicting Opononi's history.
We continued beside the harbour to Rawene. Luckily, Clendon House - that we'd been wanting to visit for ages - was open and we got a personal history from the guide. fascinating local history from NZ's early days.
Clendon House
Cafe
Pou whenua and historic homes at Kohukohu.
Then we drove up into the hills to our airbnb, where
we stayed in a little hippy-style cabin.
Malcolm 'relaxing' after wine o'clock
This is the pond at our airbnb the following morning. A very peaceful spot.
We spent the next morning exploring the north Hokianga.
At Pangaru we came across a memorial to Dame Whina Cooper who led a lands march when in her 80s. (This was in 1975.)
We drove on unsealed roads as far as Mitimiti, a very remote west coast beach. It was almost deserted (just 2 fishermen) and we could see up and down the coast for miles.
On the way back to Kohukohu we explored more little roads. here's our car at Rangi Point, with Opononi on the far shore.
After a picnic lunch at Kohukohu we drove north to Mangamuka Bridge. Then, joining SH1, we turned south and headed home.
