NZ's oldest, tallest, and most northern

On this trip we've taken in some top rating sights

The oldest stone building - the Stone Store at Keri Keri, built between 1832 and 1836



The oldest wooden building - Kemp House, or Mission House at Keri Keri, completed in 1822



Oldest and tallest tree - Tāne Mahuta (Lord of the Forest), estimated to be between 1,250 and 2,500 years old and 45 meters tall.



The northern most point - Cape Reinga



The oldest church - Christ Church in Russell, completed in 1835-6



The oldest licensed hotel - Duke of Marlborough Hotel in Russell, licensed in 1840



World's largest ceremonial war canoe, 35 meters long

Waipoua Kauri Forest

We headed over to the west coast to see some of New Zealand's oldest kauri trees. We set off generally following the road signs to the Kauri Forest, but also with directions from Google maps. At one point I noticed we'd missed a turn on the route suggested by Google, but we hadn't seen any road sign ... we decided to turn back and follow the Google map - it looked like a much shorter route. Well, it turns out we should have just kept driving!! About 10kms after the turn off we hit a gravel road with a road works sign. There weren't any road works, it was just a very narrow windy gravel road for the next 40kms!!! Oh and it was a logging area, so we encountered a few logging trucks heading in the other direction!! What should have been a 90 minute drive turned into a 3 hour saga!! We got there safely in the end, spent about half an hour looking at the trees before jumping in the car and heading back. We had a ferry booking at 5.45pm and had to be back at Paihia so we could head out to Urupukapuka Island for our romantic sunset dinner!!

Cows on the road ... we had to drive right up to them before they gently ambled away



The Four Sisters kauri trees (you can't really tell in this photo, but there are four trees there)



A fern



Tāne Mahuta (Lord of the Forest) - NZ's largest and oldest tree





View across Hokianga Harbour from Omapere



Pohutukawa in full bloom



Sun setting at Otehei Bay on Urupukapuka Island



Pre dinner cocktails