Leaving Jack Behind

I love these Maori place names, they make us feel like we’re in on an exotic island somewhere

Mister “Trouble” Carter hadn’t only been super nice to us, he was also quite useful since he knew to tell us exactly how to get to the Waipu Caves we were looking for the previous day. Apparently, the fact that they are called “Waipu” caves, does not mean that they have to be located anywhere near Waipu. Makes perfect New Zealand sense. This would not be the last time the Kiwi names would misdirect us along our trip.

We found the caves quite easily this time (road directions can be magical), took our flash light and headed into the darkness. After some “no freaking way” and “I’m definitely not going in there” from my side, we finally went into the cold water of the cave (thanks to some persuasion and patience on Ohad’s side) and walked slowly into the darkness. When we were far away enough from the entrance we turned off our flash lights. We thought it to be pitch black all around us, but when our eyes got used to the darkness a bit more we finally saw it, right there above our heads and covering the whole ceiling like a starry, starry night: glow worms! Well.. at least, we think they were glow worms. Or actually also not accurate, since we found out later, that we were apparently looking at the poop of the glow worms, since this is supposed to be the ‘glowing’ part. How romantic

After we got out of the cave we headed for Whangarei, capital of Northland region. We passed by the i-SITE (visitor information center) of Whangerei, and they recommended us to take a walk in the AH Reed Kauri Park and have a peek at the Whangarei Falls.

The park was really beautiful. It’s almost unreal how you can feel in the middle of a forest, whilst being in the middle of a big town. It was completely secluded, trees everywhere, canopy walkways and in the end.. the Whangarei waterfalls! We were very impressed and enjoyed the short (60 min) walk immensely. If you have the chance to go there, you definitely should – it’s free and a lot of fun, and the walks range between 15 minutes and 1.5 hours.

At the Whangarei i-SITE they also told us that it was not allowed to wild camp anywhere in the Northland region, due to unpleasant events in the recent past. They also told us to keep a good eye on the car at all times since there was some sort of car gang operating in the North, that was systematically breaking into cars and stealing whatever they could get their hands on, sometimes including the car itself. Not such great news.. We decided not to take any chances, and head for a DOC campsite in Whananaki. By the way, you can find all the DOC campsites, also known as Conservation Campsites, on their website or in a special booklet that you can get for free in any i-SITE or DOC visitor center in New Zealand. Having this booklet is highly recommended! Some of the campsites are free, some cheap, and a few are fully serviced. Either way they are the best budget option if you’re traveling with your own set of wheels, and most certainly the best way to be a “green” traveler.

On the way to the campsite we passed by the famous Kawakawa toilets in Kawakawa (duh). The internationally renown Austrian artist and architect Friedrich Hundertwasser lived in Kawakawa for 25 years and personally designed these toilets. I have to admit, it was one of the more fun visits to the public toilets

We arrived at the campsite in Otamure Bay (Whananaki) in the late afternoon. It was a cute campsite (7$ pp), not too big, with a nice view of the sea. We parked Gramps in front of the water, made ourselves some dinner and went to sleep. Zzzzzz…