We spent 5 days with another HelpX contact Claudia, helping around her lovely land, cutting wood and gardening. Claudia and her partner Richard were just lovely to us and brought us out sailing with their family and friends. Again, astounded by the generosity and openness of Kiwi life.
Our first campsite as head farther North is Rarawa, a lovely campsite behind the dunes of a stunning beach. The sand is the softest and whitest I have ever seen. The sea is warm and playful. It is also very generous and we did our first foraging and got a nice bunch of Tuatua for our breakfast fritters.
We keep driving till the land runs out and we are at the very top of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. We camp at the most northerly campsite. The beach is small but wild, there is talk of a shark spotting but I have come to terms with this now, there are sharks in the sea. The campsite is busy but we find a tree by the river that flows to the sea, this, as we were to find out later, was a big mistake. We were warned about the mosquitos here but I had no idea. As the sun went down I could feel the buzzing so we retired to our van, closed all the doors, killed the 20 that were in there and thought that was it. 2 minutes after the lights went out I felt the buzzing again, I thought we had missed one or two but when we turned on the torch again there were loads! I don’t know how they got in but they kept coming! It was like something out of a very mild horror film and luckily they did not bite too much. After killing and turning off lights to be buzzed again so leading to more killing of what felt like a hundred we were exhausted and just pulled the covers over our head and gave into it.
The next day we decided to hike the very end of the land to where there are a lighthouse and the usual signs pointing to cities around the world. You can see the two oceans collide, the Tasmin sea and the South Pacific, It is a nice place, the walk was very hot but lovely.
After another night killing mosquitos we escape to another campsite called Spirits bay, this place I have to say is now one of my favorite places in the world. The campsite is in the shadow of a sacred Māori hill, you can not climb it but you can see there are caves and standing stones. The whole place just reeks of tranquillity. The water is pristine, full of fish and life. So lovely to swim in. We only planned to stay one night but ended up staying three.
With a slightly heavy heart, we steer south again. We still have a week to go till we “need” to be back in Auckland but it feels like an end. All the beaches we visit on the way back are just not Spirits Bay sadly. We arrive back in Auckland rested and refreshed and ready to hit the road again. We are working “improving” Jackie, she was a total trooper and we have just a few upgrades we want to do before we head off again.