Long time no see...

 ...But we are still alive!! Our little car has now taken us about 450 km up through Auckland and Northland and we are now in the Bay of Islands. From Auckland we headed up to Whangarei and spent a day at the BEAUTIFUL Ocean Beach. We spent a few hours on the beach, admiring the surfers and taking a swim in the amazing waves (but it was cold!) before we hiked up a mountain and got a beautiful view over Whangarei Heads. We had dinner at the beach parking lot, cooking pasta with our newly-bought portable stove and spent our second night sleeping in the car! The next day we headed up a winding road to Waipoua Forest where we hiked up another mountain (be aware, we will be doing a lot of hiking) and saw the world's biggest Kauri tree, Tane Mahuta. We also had one of the best lunches in history: cottage cheese, almonds and raisins on a fence overlooking green meadows and the never-ending ocean. Finally, we ended up in Paihia, a cute coastal village in the Bay of Islands. It's quite cold and windy but thanks to another hike (this time to a waterfall), we have been walking around in t-shirts! We can't believe we've only been in New Zealand for a week, we've already seen so much! Enjoy the pics :)

 

First view on the road, don't really know what Caroline is doing...

Happy car camper!

 

Breakfast time in Whangarei. Oatmeal and bananas. Why are we so cool?

Beautiful mountains, beautiful NZ...

In action, cottage cheese at Ocean Beach. 

It doesn't get much better than this

 View over Ocean Beach

We still have energy after a long hike

The best lunch in history

Hokianga Harbour

Today's hike to Haruru Falls.