Not close to being up to date!

What an exciting few days. In Auckland, we found a map, asked a climber how to get out of the city, and headed North. We grabbed a bus from Auckland to Waiwera. From there we hitched (Kiwi term for hitchhiking) as far as we could in a day. The first guy that picked us up was a really fun guy from South Africa that had been living here for about 8 years. He was enthusiastic and it made us feel good to get a lift from someone like him.

He dropped us off at Warkworth where we didn't wait long for someone else to help us out. In fact, a few people stopped, but weren't going our direction. The brother sister couple that picked us up were going further than we thought we would make it. We set our sights on a town called Whangerai. (Sometimes pronounced Fahng-gurh-ay or Wung-er-ay.) Out side the Swinging Goat Cafe a man named George from Essex, England picked us up. He had sailed to New Zealand 20 years ago taking 2 years on a sailboat. He set out looking for adventure. I feel like we can relate to that. He said that he had spent time hitching around New Zealand when he first arrived so he knew what we were going through. He dropped us off at the tourist office in Whangerai. We had made it much further than we had hoped to make it and we feel like we are starting to see the New Zealand that we came looking for. At the tourist information area, we found a hostel/camper van/tent place near Whangerai Falls.

 

They advertised a bbq, hot tub, and they would pick us up free of charge. Sounded too good to be true. It wasn't. A wonderful British lady and her Kiwi husband run the Whangerai Falls Backpacker and it is worth a trip for anyone up this way.

Having a gas bbq was too much to not use, so we got a bottle of wine, grilled some meat, had an appetizer of hummus and french bread, and ate solid food for the first time in a while. Then we sat in the hot tub with our new friend Gerry from Dublin. We have met a few characters along our travels, and we laugh every day at our experiences.
The next day, we made the standard breakfast of oatmeal and tea, and headed off for the waterfall.

It did not disappoint. The walk into town was an hour and a half of absolute beauty. We followed a stream and found out how to use the "panorama" function on our camera.

Leaving Whangerai, we headed a bit further north towards the town of Whananaki. It is a small beach community that was desolate on the weekend that we visited. We stayed for two nights and had to rough it on another beach that we had all to ourselves. We met a couple of surfers that told us that the east winds bring them surf. We had lots of wind until the day that we left, but never got a chance to surf. From there we headed even more north to the bigger town of Paihia. It is situated at the Bay of Islands. All along the way we have been hitching with ease. We have waited about a half an hour at the longest (according to local hitchers 20 minutes is average). In Paihia, we found that there is a half marathon coming up this weekend. To prepare, I went for a 10k run. I got a bit turned around and ended up doing closer to 20k. I haven't run a in a few weeks, so my legs are a bit tired, but at least I know that I should be able to complete the race. The run was beautiful. Along the beach, by a golf course, through the forest, over the mangroves, looking for Kiwi birds the whole time.