Crapping on a yak.....overland to the other side of the world and the rest: Day 267 – 25 April 2010: giant sands, the hitchhiker, giant trees and still no kiwis

I wake up to the sound of crashing waves.

We leave the campsite and stop at Te Paki sand dunes, and they are a quizzically massive size, which pictures making them look much smaller than they are. They seem to stand alone among the nearby rocky bays, though I suspect these two facts are related, with the sand having nowhere else to go. It takes quite some effort to climb up the dunes, and I lose my crocs several times, but I get up to the top driven by a determination to see the beach on the other side. Spotted among the dunes are islands of evolving rock, which crumble back into sand if hit with a little force.

We debate taking the 90 mile beach route, but the signs say that it is strictly for off road vehicles, and it points out that rental vehicles are not insured to drive on the beach road. Oh well, I am not sure Albert would have made it anyway.

We decide to stay on the west coast on our way back to Auckland though, and we decide to stop off at Waipoua Forest to see the giant kauri trees. On the way, we pick up a German hitchhiker called Heide, a thirty-ish German. She is also going to see the kauri trees and then plans to go onto Auckland, so she ends up camping with us at night.

When we get to the forest, the trees we see are more remarkable for their girth than their height, though the tallest, Tāne Mahuta, has a 17.7m trunk, but is 51m including its branches. It is also between 1,250 and 2,500 years old. The broadest though is Te Matua Ngahere, which has a 16.4m diameter (54 ft), and is about 1,500 years old.

After just catching Hokianga Car Ferry by seconds, we camp at another Dept of Conservation site, where Heide and I take a night walk through the forest, where signs tell us we have the opportunity to see some kiwi birds. Heide has re-iterated that the birds I saw on the South Island were probably Weka (woodhens), though I am still not sure. We have a pleasant walk, but spot no kiwis or wekas, possibly because I can’t resist an urge to do a Tarzan bellow as we walk through the woodland.