Biffs first test

So we left Auckland, finally. Although I totally loved it and can see why it consistently appears high in "the best city to live in" poll (which I believe Vancouver usually tops) but it is just another big city. Same sort of thing as say, London or New York with it’s hustle and bustle and just way too many people. It soon got tiresome hearing people roll out of the bar across the street at 5am and whooping and hollering. God that makes me sound old but believe me, it got old very fast.

So we were quite keen to load up Biff, hit the road and head up to see our mates in Whangarei. It was about a 165km drive and our first real test for Biff. We weren’t anxious but when a van is as old as Biff is there’s no telling what can go wrong. I must admit, being a pessimist, that I half expected Biffs engine to fall out as we were driving up some of the steeper hills on the way. Thankfully Biff did his job well and seemed to handle the hills quite well considering, with all our gear in him, he now weighs over 3 tons! The drive up was amazing. Almost as soon as we left Aucklands sprawling city limits we were up in the hills surrounded by lush green rainforest's before hitting the coastal road and it all flattening out and we could see the impressive formation of the Whangarei Heads of in the distance. I must admit that Biff is so easy to drive. He doesn’t have such luxuries such as Air con or power steering, and to be fair he rolls like a boat when you take a corner but it was a joy just cruising along at around 80kph. Managed to get him up to 110kph and could have gone faster downhill but he’s certainly built for comfort, not speed – just like me really! It is like trying to park the Isle of Wight though but I’m sure we will get used to it.
Amazingly Kate remembered the way to Danny and Catherines in Onerahi, which is one of the suburbs of Whangarei. It was great to see them again and their house is gorgeous. It’s like an old white plantation style house perched on top of a hill overlooking Whangarei harbour. It has 4 bedrooms so there is plenty of room for us. We dumped our gear and as it was such a lovely day we headed straight to the beach. Danny drove us to Ocean Beach and I got my first real look at the southern Pacific. The beach, by NZ standards, was packed!! With over 20 people on it! These Kiwis don’t know what a packed beach is. We wandered along the beach, Kate and Catherine in their elements, what with them both being marine biologists. Danny and me climbed up on the steep cliffs and were greeted with an amazing view down the coast. Vivid green hills rolling down to gorgeous white sands and clear azure ocean. Certainly beats Bognor Regis! We headed back and stopped at a pub for a beer and some lunch. We sat in the beer garden which was on the estuary and watched gulls, terns and herons. The Quays in Mychett looks like it overlooks a rubbish tip in comparison!

We got back, got changed then headed out to downtown Whangarei to meet a few of Danny and Catherines friends for a meal. We had Italian then meet up with a few more mates in a few bars. Whangarei doesn’t have a thriving club scene like Auckland but it had plenty of bars and some decent live bands. Everyone we met was really friendly. I left one of the pubs with my camera and tried to take some pics of the outside but gave up when loads of randoms kept waving at me and posing for the pictures.

The next day we drove north to Baylys Beach and to go and see the huge Kauri trees in Waipoua (not sure on that spelling) forest. Baylys beach was again packed with over 6 people there! I can get used to these packed beaches. The Kauri forest was stunning! It’s so bizarre seeing the sea, green rolling hills and dense rainforest all within 10 minutes of each other. We stopped to see Tane Mahutu which is the Maori name for a big ass Kauri tree. It meant God of the Forest and as the name suggests he was a pretty big tree. 16.5m wide trunk and 55m tall! Kauri trees are the 2nd biggest, after the great redwood sequoias of north America. It’s one of the reason NZ became colonised so quickly as Kauri wood is super strong and perfect for building huge boats.

The next day was a day we had been looking forward to for a while. We were going to go snorkeling in the Poor Knights Marine Reserve off the Tutukaka coast just north of Whangarei. Our trip was called the perfect day and it didn’t disappoint. I thought that it was a big claim calling it the perfect day and worried that we would be left wanting. We got onto our boat which was huge and again, by NZ standards, packed with over 25 people! The boat was big enough to hold 100 so we had plenty of space to spread ourselves out. The boat trip to the islands was just under an hour. The islands have a marine protection perimeter of 800 metres and once you get into the reserve you have to behave. No peeing, pooing, touching, splashing or anything or you can get fined $250,000 and get locked up for 6 months! We moored up in a secluded bay, grabbed our wetsuits, snorkels and fins and were off! The best thing about the poor knights is the diversity of fish and coral, probably why it is considered one the the top ten dive sites in the world. We snorkeled into caves and under arches with thousands of tame fish no more than a few centimetres from your face! Danny summed it up well by saying it was like swimming through jelly tots! We saw some big King fish, eagle rays and a strange blue fish which my marine biologist friends still can’t find the name of. I reckoned we have found a new species and put forward that we should call it an Orangutan tit fish as it had floppy pectoral fins. The girls vetoed it though. It wasn’t until we got out that the skipper informed us that a few snorkelers had seen some pretty big sharks over by one of the arches we were snorkeling near. I declined the offer of going back in to see them. Screw that!!
We then headed into Rikoriko cave which is the largest sea cave in the world and has amazing acoustics. Lots of famous people have recorded music in it and it even hid a marauding Japanese submarine during the second world war! Ended the day with a BBQ back at the house and to be fair, it was a pretty good day. Not perfect. That would have involved dolphins and some form of oral sex (not from the dolphin though). A pretty damn good day though!

Yesterday Danny and Catherine had to go back to work and left Kate and me to fend for ourselves. We spent the day Pimping out Biff. We packed all our clothes and crap into his tons of storage cubby holes and then gave him a wash inside and out. We added a few things like a fan and stuck down a few little rattly bits. We then stuck loads of stickers on him and window jellies to brighten him up. Kate had to have lots of penguin and seahorse jellies and we also put some flower jellies on too. All looked pretty good and certainly livened up the inside. We have a few more bits and bobs to do today then we’re gonna head off to Whangarei falls which are the most photographed waterfalls in NZ.

I’ll let you know how we get on. Miss you all lots. Have been trying to upload some pics to this blog but it's being a dick and won't let me. You'll just have to look at my Facebook pics.

D

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