I can see for miles and miles and miles

Our next few days in New Zealand made us realise we had, as usual,  been over ambitious. View to the left; View to the right; exciting/interesting place just ahead. It was impossible to see all of the Northlands in 4 days,  but we did our best. We left Warkworth, heading to an area known as the Bay of Islands, stopping in towns along the way to explore. Our accommodation was not in the Bay or the islands  but in the mountains above & to get to it required  a “hold on to your seat” ride up a long, windy,  gravel road for about 20km. Definitely worth the effort though. Our accommodation was a cosy (small) self contained unit (summerhouse), with a small veranda & huge views across the hills & down onto one of the inlets. It was mesmerising, particularly as the sun went down & turned the sky into an array of different colours. Inside,  the accommodation was compact,  with the shower and loo separated from the kitchen area by a curtain (lucky we know each other) and a bedroom where the bed  was the primary feature. It was lovely &  we woke in the night to look at the stars in the huge sky. The following day we drove back down the mountain to a town called Russell that overlooked the Bay. A sweet little town but not much going on so we caught the car ferry across the bay & got back on the highway. We stopped in a town called Kawakawa, which is famous for its toilets – which I have to say are quite impressively decorated with ceramic  mosaics & glass, but not sure I would live in a town that has such a claim to fame. Next to a town called Waiotira (you will probably notice, as I did,  that an awful lot of the towns in NZ begin with K or W) where after a walk around, we began the very steep climb up an unmade road that made the previous days one seem quite tame. Mr L was driving with my expert advice on speed & sharpness of corners being continually shared, to aide him in the task, which I’m sure he appreciated but didn't say so. Our accommodation for that evening was what I would describe as “unusual”. Again, a self contained unit at the back of the owners house, with an outside shower & laundry area as well as a separate outside compost loo – all looking like little hobbit houses. In fact I speculated that the owner had worked on the ‘Lord of the Rings’ film set & when it was finished he couldn't stop making little hobbity things so he just carried on building them at home instead. It had a certain charm though,  but more importantly it had the most spectacular views looking down across the valley laid out below us. So good I bored people with pictures and even FaceTimed the kids to share it with them. I must say they did well to be enthusiastic at 6.45am their time ,whilst they were busy getting ready for work, for a view they could barely see,  but we appreciated their efforts.
We spent what must have been a typical evening before television was invented, listening to music & reading by the dim light of the standard lamp before retiring to our hobbity bed. 

Our plan had been to explore Hokianga Bay and go sand surfing but time was against  us. The following morning as we drove south we pulled into the town of Opononi that looked across to the huge sand hills so we could at least admire the views. We also called in to a little craft fair  and purchased a huge slab of homemade carrot cake for $7! A good way to keep spirits up.  Next stop  Waipoua Kauri Forest – home to the most magnificent 2,000yr old tree, where tourists pointed lengthy camera lenses to get a good shot & Mr L blew them away with a panorama pic on my iPhone which made the camera boffs gasp in admiration. 
We stopped for lunch in Dargaville. It doesn't sound like an attractive town & we had been told by C&T that it wasn't but that just made us want to go there even more. We had lunch at the ‘blahblahblah’ café, where the wifi code was ‘Idontknow’ which amused me & strolled around town which was buzzing as a result of a cycle race taking place there. After a whole day of driving we arrived at the accommodation in Kaukapakapa – another airbnb find, cooked, had a glass of wine/beer & watched a film. The following morning we were back in Auckland, swapped the  car for a Camper van & promised ourselves we would take our travels a little more sedately this time.