By the name Northlands, you can imagine where this is on the New Zealand map. It essentially encompasses all the area north of Auckland. It’s also known as “the winterless north”, however that does not mean it’s immune to a good rain shower. We travelled up there to take in a few sites and encountered weather that was as unpredictable as we’ve seen in New Zealand. One minute there would be blue skies and sun, the next rain. This pattern repeated itself for the three days we were there. Highlights from our visit:
Shakespeare Regional Park
Known for its picture frame.
Anchor Bay:
Certainly the busiest beach I’ve been to in New Zealand. Mixed of beautiful surroundings and good surfing. We timed our visit right to capture some sunshine.
Cape Reinga
This is the tip of the North Island where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. It is far away from civilization but gives you a unique sense of location when you are at the absolute top of a country. There is a lighthouse, waves from the Tasman crashing into waves from the Pacific and hurricane strength winds.
Sand Dunes of Ninety Mile Beach
After climbing up a few dunes, you feel as if you’ve completely left New Zealand and have been transported into the Sahara. There were people ‘Sand Surfing’, which was essentially sledding on sand. We rolled down the dunes and left with sand covering every square inch of our bodies.
Other interesting stops along the way:
Love the lone sheep, the last pic of Cape Regina and the mileage marker. Hope you didn't have that camera in your hand coming down that sand dune if you were covered! Keep enjoying this magnificient country. Your time must be coming to an end fairly soon.
ReplyDeleteI learned my lesson from earlier trips to the beach. This time i left the camera in the car (even thought there would have been some great shots at the top of the sand dune)
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