Time to head home now — a 12 hour drive. We’ll visit friends along the way and have a couple of overnight stops.
Rain forecast for the rest of our trip.
Cape Reinga/Te Rerenga Wairua heritage:
after death, all Māori spirits travel … to the pohutukawa tree on the headland of Te Rerenga Wairua.
They descend into the underworld (reinga) by sliding down a root into the sea … then return to the land of their ancestors, Hawaiiki-A-Nui.
From Taipā Beach, on the East Coast in the Far North of Aotearoa. Just before dawn. Also just before I got drenched in a downpour!
It was almost dark and still pouring with rain when we arrived at Taipā Beach Resort near Coopers Beach so I’m looking forward to dawn in a couple of hours to be able to enjoy our beach view.
Last time we visited Coopers Beach we spotted a couple of orca!
Yesterday afternoon we drove through pouring rain to our booked holiday home in Coopers Beach, Northland. There was delay getting in, then the house stank, was damp and dirty and hard to access. After I carried our bags in through the rain and upstairs we ended up leaving. Refund requested!
This corridor feels endless.
Last year I decided my personal year would run from (my) Winter Solstice to (my) Winter Solstice (as nature intended). That makes today New Year’s Eve. I actually have a resolution for the New Year: to do some stretches every day. I’m far too stiff and creaky.
Today we leave Paihia in the Bay of Islands and drive about an hour north to Cooper’s Beach. Tomorrow we do a day trip up to Cape Reinga, about 1.5 hours drive. Unfortunately the weather looks like it’s going to be rainy and windy.
Views from the Breakwater Motel at Paihia.
Tāne Mahuta, 2000 years old, is enormous and awe inspiring.
Today we plan to visit Tāne Mahuta, New Zealand’s largest known living kauri tree:
- Trunk girth: 13.77 m
- Trunk height: 17.68 m
- Total height: 51.2 m
- Trunk volume: 244.5 m³
According to Māori, Tāne is the son of Papatuanuku the earth mother and Ranginui the sky father (Papa and Rangi). Tāne pushed his embracing parents apart then clothed his mother in the forest. All living creatures of the forest are Tāne's children.
Source: Tāne Mahuta Walk: Waipoua Forest, Northland.
See also my posts:
- Visit Tāne Mahuta, 06 January 2019
- How huge Tāne Mahuta is, 06 January 2019
- Determination, 09 August 2019
We arrived at Opononi in the Hokianga after sunset, but the view of Hokianga Harbour from our room at The Heads is splendid.
I totally recommend Thaidelight Restaurant in Taupō. The food arrived very quickly and was extremely delicious. The service was excellent and the decor rich and welcoming.
A private spa pool. Hooray! Maybe my multi-day headache will decide it doesn’t like hot water and will disappear.
Ahhh, relaxing with a Yunnan Yellow tea, looking over Lake Taupō.
The Moomaa Cafe, a bit up the line from Bulls, was very popular. The Hot Chocolate (me) and Flat White (Deb) were excellent. The fries and aioli (me) and Cheese Roll (oniony) and Sausage Roll (Deb) were also excellent.
Somehow I had missed reading Midnight Come Again (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 10) by Dana Stabenow, even though I’d read all but #23. 📚
Now put right and it was, as expected, an excellent read!
I love the Alaska setting in these books and the characters are favourites too.
I enjoyed reading Three Dog Knight (A Jorja Knight Private Investigator Mystery Book 3) by Alice Bienia. 📚
Jorja is one unlucky detective who narrowly escapes with her life on several occasions. The book held my interest though, and I expect to read more in the series.
Last night I was thrilled with the Starry Time session I ran down on the beach. People enjoyed learning about the objects we viewed and liked my tale of the magic car that would travel the 94,000,000 Km to Venus non-stop at 80 Kph (50 mph) in a mere 134 years!
The teens who turned up were thrilled!
Yesterday I noticed tree felling had begun ~800 metres east of us. Incredibly, this morning it’s still 1 hour till sunrise, a brisk -3C (27F), and they’re back already.
Went out to check out the night sky to prep for tomorrow’s Starry Time session. It was gorgeous. Two handheld 10-second iPhone shots of the Milky Way: one with Crux, the other with Scorpius. 🤩
Crux and the Coalsack.
Milky Way by Scorpius (with flax spears).