We stopped first at Waipoua Forest to see "Tane Mahuta," supposedly the largest known kauri tree known. It's also very old - about 2,000 years.
We picked up a couple of guys from France who were hitchhiking, and invited them to come home with us. They are backacking their way around New Zealand for a year. (Now that would be the way to travel!)
They joined us for a walk around the Trounson Kauri park. It's a beautiful, mysterious forest.
The kauri trees are impressive in size!
I'd decided to leave the farm a few days early, so I could do some sightseeing on the east coast. I might not be in this part of NZ again, so I wanted to make the most of it.
I started my holiday-within-a-holiday in Dargaville, Northland, where I had a few hours to kill before the bus came.
Trusty backpack along, of course. (My backpack is a story in itself - found it randomly several years ago at a thrifstore for $6. Knew it would come in handy someday, and saved in good faith.)
My first destination was Whangerei, where my friends' sister Lea warmly welcomed me and had invited me to stay. I had a few hours to kill, so I walked along the wharf.
I fell into conversation with a German couple freshly arrived to New Zealand and at the start of their hitch-hiking adventure. "I always run into Germans here!" I told them. "And you are the first American we've met here," they told me. I too noticed that I hadn't met too many people from US backpacking around New Zealand.
Next morning was a quick stop at Whangerei Falls, before I had to catch my bus to reach my next destination.
Paihia.
I really had no idea of what to expect except that I'd heard the Bay of Islands was not to be missed. At the bus stop, I chatted with an older lady from England, who had come back to NZ to see all the places she'd missed when she'd hitch-hiked around 30 years prior, and a young man from Korea, who at twenty was just out of high school and taking a tour of NZ before he has to fulfill his mandatory military service. (He seemed impressed that I had some very minimal knowledge of K-pop and that I am a fan of K-Dramas.)
I checked into my hostel, run by YHA, and slept for the next four hours. (The nice thing about travelling alone: you can do whatever you want, even if that includes taking a long nap.) The season was just starting, so the hostel was relatively quiet, and I had my four-bed hostel room to myself that night. Lovely.
The next morning I took off for the Haruru Falls track, which started a half hour's walk outside of town towards Waitangi. I passed the Waitangi Treaty grounds, a place of historical interest but one I didn't have time for his day. I was on a mission.
The track was amazing, full of ferns and tree ferns and plants I couldn't identify, and even a mangrove swamp.
By the time I'd reached the waterfall at the end of the track, it was raining pretty steadily (which is why one brings a waterproof jacket wherever one goes in New Zealand.)
I walked barefoot along the beach on the way back. (By this time the rain had cleared away.)
After my four hours walk, I decided it was time to treat myself to a massage. Ahhh... that's my kind of holiday.
That evening, a lot of people had arrived at the hostel, and the kitchen was bustling. Kitchen time is friend-making time at hostels. I met my room-mates (Canadian and German) and the first American I'd come across at a hostel (a guy from California.)
Lisa (also from Canada) and I stayed up late, talking and laughing at the kitchen table about books and random Canadian tv shows and American politics and such.
The next morning was time to leave, but I left feeling relaxed and refreshed, thankful for my time there. Paihia is such a quiet, nice little town, I imagine living there would feel like an endless holiday. I'll have to go back someday.
I'll have to go back someday.
