Paihia to Matamata via West Coast Northland

Luckily for us, we were advised to take a short detour to a little place called Rawene. As we turned off the main road and drove the 8 kilometres to this quaint little village, I was not sure it was a great idea, as all could see was mist. As we arrived, you could see nothing, but as we sat on the balcony of a gorgeous little tea room, the mist suddenly started to lift and the views were nothing short of breathtaking! It was mystical, magical!

 What a view and to make things even more fantastic, there was a kingfisher perched on the end of the ramp.
There was even a small car ferry leaving from here.
 Our next stop, and another of my bucket list leaders, was a visit to the Waipoua Forest, where the oldest tree in New Zealand is - Tane Mahuta, Father of the Forest, 2000 years old.  It is 51.5 metres tall and has a girth of 13.77 metres
We learnt that once the tree reaches the second canopy of the forest, it stops growing up and just grows wider. It was spectacular, as was the entire forest walk.
 The trip down the West Coast, Kauri Coast, was absolutely phenomenal. Here we reached an incredible spot with a view to South Head. Stunning indeed!
Unfortunately, once we got back onto State Highway 1, things were not so much fun. Reaching Auckland at 16.15 was a mistake and it took us over 2.5 hours to get through to our turn off to Matamata. It was a nightmare and meant a ghastly drive on dark roads to our final destination. We amazingly did not pass a restaurant, so arrived very tired and hungry at our lovely farmstay. Lovely people there who let us at least eat some muesli with fruit and have a very welcome cup of tea. We were lucky we had just enough petrol to get there as we had not passed any petrol stations either!


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