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| Our pictures couldn't capture the beauty of this incredible landscape |
Today it was time to leave Paihia and the Bay of Islands – a tough thing to do. But we left our apartment around 10am for a leisurely drive south. And not only was it leisurely, but it was beautiful as well. This portion of the drive was the same highway we took driving north, but today it was even more spectacular – with the sun shining and puffy white clouds all about. The country side we have seen so far in New Zealand is truly stunning. And every town we drive through looks clean, fresh and well maintained. It really is as beautiful as I was expecting, and hoping to see.
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| Is there a prettier place to partake in a picnic? |
Anyway, we ended up taking a brief side trip to view Waihengrei Falls – got a bit lost getting there, but soon found our way. Then our trusty GPS got us back into town and onto the highway. Our plan for our trip south to Auckland was to take a coastal side route through the town of Waipu, which we did, and it was incredibly beautiful. We stopped at a beach park at the very small town of Waipu Cove and had our picnic lunch – it was incredibly beautiful (did I say that already?) Well it was!!
When we left the beach park, we drove about a mile before we saw this incredible view (see photo) and we had to pull over for some more photos. Just stunning! Better than Big Sur kind of stunning – at least in my humble opinion.
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| Rivals or exceeds the beauty of Big Sur! |
Anyway, the side road continued to wind and wind its way back to the main highway, through more beautiful landscapes and farms. We finally hit the main road and in about an hour arrived at our hotel in Takapuna – a nice little beachside suburb just north of Auckland.
After checking in, we decided to explore the area before nightfall so we walked down to the beach and then walked on the beach a bit. A very nice beach with lots of beautiful homes and views of an extinct and lush volcanic island just offshore. We then walked back into town looking for a place to eat and finally discovered Nico’s Greek Pizza. It was a tiny place but the smells captivated us, so we went in and I ordered a Greek Special Pizza – with lamb, tzatziki, olives, etc and Joanie ordered a Greek salad, and both were delicious. Nicco’s didn’t serve alcohol, so while he was preparing our dinner, we told him we were going to the pub next door to have a drink, and that worked out just find. I had an Irish brewed Guinness and Joanie had a New Zealand red wine.
After dinner we returned to the hotel and pretty much called it a night – going to be early in preparation for an early start exploring Auckland tomorrow.
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| Takapuna Beach in north Auckland, near the end of the day. |
