Pulled Over in Northland
8-November 2004: After spending a few minutes at Rainbow Falls, we made our way over to the Kauri Coast. We headed west along SH12 when we had to follow a slow-moving truck. Such was the norm it seemed since New Zealand's roads were mostly two lanes and twisty. And so we merrily waited for an opportunity to pass the truck safely when a police car was suddenly in our rear-view mirror...
It was 8am when we finally arrived in Auckland after a 12-hour flight from LAX. I had a miserable time on the airplane suffering from severe diarrhea from eating refrigerated food at home that was left in the fridge for days. Julie insisted that this was my lesson learned about the dangers of food poisoning. Anyhow, after picking up our luggage after what seemed like forever, we waited for what seemed like forever for a shuttle bus that would take us to the Maui Rental Car - which we pre-booked prior to the trip. Apparently, their car hire facility was a long ways away from the terminal. Once at the car hire facility, we filled out some paperwork and then waited... ...and waited... ...and waited... ...finally after 90 minutes, we finally got our hired car. With all that time to kill, I got the GPS to finally realize we were thousands of miles away and we were good to go. Neither Julie nor I were not too pleased with this long wait, but they said they had computer problems. Anyhow, it was past 10:30am and I was worried about showing up to Whangarei (a three-hour drive northwards and our first night's destination) too late. After the initial jitters of getting used to driving on the left-hand-side of the road and the right-hand-side of the car, we quickly made our way north through SH1 in Auckland. It was busy as expected since we were in the city, and we briefly checked out the skyline with its Sky Tower from the freeway before heading into the green pastures outside town. Even outside the city, the road was quite busy, especially when the traffic was caught behind slow moving trucks. It felt like the passing lanes were too few and far between. Julie and I were on the way to Brynderwyn (where the SH1 and SH12 met) when my diarrhea was really acting up again. Besides, both of us were hungry so we opted to take a detour west to Maungaturoto - a real New Zealand town as the locals would say. So with the uncomfortable stop and some fried takeaway food (our credit cards didn't work there so we had to pay cash) thereafter, Julie and I were sated once again. Back in the Mitsubishi Lancer we went and now it was time to find Piroa Falls. Since Maungaturoto was on one end of the Waipu Gorge Road (SH1 being the other), we took the unsealed road into the Waipu Gorge Scenic Reserve and made it to the large signed pullout for the falls.
It was 3pm when we finally arrived in town. The check-in and unpacking occurred without incident at the Motel Six in Whangarei. There was still a little more time left in the afternoon to check out Whangarei Falls. So that we did.
Julie and I dined in an interesting little cafe called Tonic, which seemed to serve Italian food with some Pacific fusion influence. The rest of the night passed as both of us were still getting used to the time zone change. Thus, we slept easily and I was anxious to see what the Bay of Islands would be like tomorrow... [Back to top] The drive to Paihia took a little over an hour. Since everyone seemed to just start opening up their doors at the time we got there, we just walked around and killed time before our pre-determined meeting time. During that time, Julie joked with a Mack Attack employee about being on tour with a competitor when asked whether we needed assistance. Anyhow, it was finally 10:45am and the fast boat was off the Paihia Wharf and headed to the Hole-in-the-Rock with stops at Russell and a few other off-shore islands. We were excited about this tour because we also like natural arches in addition to waterfalls. The one we were about to see was supposed to be huge. Julie was in a great mood with the wonderfully sunny weather, and both of us hoped this type of weather would persist for our wedding, which was a week later.
The span of the giant arch was big enough for the boat to easily make it through. Inside the arch, it almost felt cave-like as you could see and feel water dripping from the ceiling. When we got to the other side of the arch, we could see a smaller arch as we looked in the direction of the Cape Brett lighthouse. That was something we didn't expect to see. Then, the boat swung around to the opposite side of the big rocky island where a blowhole was forcing water up towards an overhanging ceiling above the swells. Finally, the boat was passing back before the original side we came in. But before getting back to the front of the arch, we went in towards an intriguing cave. They called it the Cathedral Cave and the tour guide said mockingly that it looked impossible to get in.
Inside the cave, it was eerily quiet. You could hear water dropping from the ceiling and hitting the calm water, which was sheltered from the turbulent outside. After this brief interlude, the Excitor tour headed back to Paihia. It was about 1pm when we returned to the wharf. So we checked out the nearby i-SITE. The i-SITES, by the way, were cleverly named Visitor Information Centers that seemed to be strategically located throughout New Zealand. So we loaded up on free brochures and even bought a few maps we thought were useful as well as a road atlas. Julie and I then had a brief lunch before we were back on the road. On the way to Kerikeri, we made a brief stop at the horseshoe-shaped Haruru Falls before getting to Rainbow Falls. After spending a few minutes at Rainbow Falls, we made our way over to the Kauri Coast. We headed west along SH12 when we had to follow a slow-moving truck. Such was the norm it seemed since New Zealand's roads were mostly two lanes and twisty. And so we merrily waited for an opportunity to pass the truck safely when a police car was suddenly in our rear-view mirror. Not long afterwards, he flashed his lights and now we had to find a place to pull over... Julie and I were perplexed. Anyhow, we finally found a good spot to pull over and stop the car. Out walked the officer, who seemed kind of cheery for a cop (quite unlike what we're used to back in the States), and he did the usual thing asking for my license. He proceeded to tell us we had sped, but we couldn't figure out what he was talking about. After all, we were following a truck. How could we be speeding? Anyhow, I think he eventually let us go. He didn't give me a ticket on the spot (kind of weird, I thought). But he did have my license information. Whether he was sympathetic to the fact that this was only my second day in New Zealand or maybe he was wrong, I didn't get the feeling that he gave us a ticket. Still, I couldn't tell if we were cited or not...
Back on SH12, we turned left at the unsealed Waiotemarama Gorge Road. After a few minutes, we made it to a signed car park. It was only 15 minutes to the falls so we went ahead and checked it out. The falls itself was a bit disappointing and tiny though we did see another tiny falls along the way as well. Still, we were the only ones on the trail and it was quite a pleasant little nature walk. Next, we returned to the car and proceeded to head south on SH12 towards Dargaville. Along the way, we made stops at a couple of places to check out the Kauri Trees.
The short 5-minute stop was followed by another half-hour stop for the Four Sisters, which was basically a set of four Kauri Trees. By 7:30pm, we made it to Dargaville to fill up some gas. The town seemed awfully quiet. But then again, it was also getting dark. By 8:45pm, we finally returned to Whangarei. Since Julie and I hadn't eaten anything since 1pm, we were famished. Unfortunately, most places have closed or were closing. We ended up settling for a place by the waterfront called Revas on the Waterfront. However, they weren't serving mains anymore so we had less than average bar food. And so ended our little loop of Northland. I was a little perplexed by what happened with the whole pulling over thing. But anyhow, it was fun. Tomorrow, we had to return to Auckland and get to work on preparing for the upcoming wedding...
|
After a short 15-minute walk to the falls' base, we returned to the car and continued on our way to Whangarei. It took at least another our or so to finally get to Whangarei but it seemed like longer with the ever-present trucks slowing the traffic down. I recalled one instance where I had to race forward when a truck was about to merge from its passing lane. Little did I know this particular move would bite me when it came time to return the car 
A short well-defined path led straight to the top of the falls. It appeared to have several columns of water falling side by side. This was even more apparent when we descended towards the picnic area at its base.
So, the music became the "Mission Impossible" theme as we went in.
At 4pm, we passed through a charming local township called Opononi. Not long after town, Julie and I stopped by a nice lookout that peered back into Hokianga Harbour. It was good spot for photographs.
One of the stops we made was for a tree named Tane Mahuta. It was the largest and oldest living Kauri Tree left as most of the others were logged or burned in wildfires. Having seen Sequoia Trees back home, I had to admit these guys were impressive. The thick white trunks and height of the trees rivaled the giant redwoods.