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We toured parts of Northland in company with Milan and
Adrian of AMALTHEA and Tom and Nancy of EQUINOX. The Chariot to AMALTHEA! The two photos above were taken at the Funky Fish restaurant just outside of Dargaville. The wine list was hand printed on the inside of a cardboard wine case spacer. The toilet facilities (unisex) are funky, don't you think? Shows what you can do with broken tile. The owners are aging hippies and the food and service are great. |
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The campground is by the side of a small creek that opens up unto the Kerikeri inlet. Even though the inlet is narrow and shallow, large boats anchor in the sheltered waters.
The awesome power of the sea.
Here off Cape Reinga, the swell from the Tasman crash against that of the South Pacific
creating haystack like mounds of white water. And this was on a calm day!
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Wild rosebushes growing along a fence, mixed in with NZ flax and other flowering shrubs. This is a scene just outside Waipoura Forest where we walked among the huge kauri.
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The church of St. John the Baptist at Waimate Mission, surrounded by a cemetery, has an elaborate stone lych gate into the grounds. Inside the kauri church we spotted a fairly large organ. The organ, installed in 1885, made by Bevington and Son of Soho, bought for the princely sum of 240£, is probably secondhand. It is still in regular use for services.
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The cemetery surrounding the church has many Maori headstones, this being the most elaborate. The surrounding farms are still owned and worked by descendants of the early pioneers, many of whom are buried in this cemetery.
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Wine country, a lily pond, with dinghy, and vines in the background. We tasted wine at two vineyards, and had a delightful lunch at the Cottle Hill Winery. Cottle Hill Winery was established 5 years ago by a San Diego cruising couple.
Pruning the vines is hard work. About 9 acres of vines have been planted. The buildings were built using wood from the large trees on the property. This apparently is a common way to build in NZ as long as the trees are not protected NZ species such as kauri and rapa.
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Te Matua Ngahere, Father of the Forest is the second largest living kauri in NZ. Although shorter than Tene Mahuta, this massive tree is 15 meters in diameter, and approximately 2000 years old. The photo is a composite of 3 or 4 that I needed to get a complete view. Paula is sitting on a handrail, while Vlad takes a picture lying on the boardwalk. In the background are the Four Sisters.
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Hokianga beach scene. Rock formations along the Tasman
coast. There is a pool of water in the large rock with people basking in the warm water. There are various types of shellfish along the beaches, green-lipped mussels, pippies (a manila-like clam), oysters and abalone just waiting to be picked. |
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There is an overabundance of ferns in NZ, some are the size of small trees. Giant fiddleheads anyone?
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These clusters of lily-like flowers grow everywhere, along the sides of the roads, and in gardens.