New Zealand: Northland Fieldtrip Part 1 - Auckland to Paihia via the East Coast!

This is going to be a pretty wordy post, but feel free to just skip past and look at the pictures!

This year, I took on two courses during summer school. One of which is Field Studies in Environment and Community, or more lovingly known as GEOG207. This course is only available during the summer semester at the University of Auckland and is by far my favourite course ever. It's in high demand as it only has 2.5 days of in class lectures and includes a compulsory 5 day road trip around Northland, New Zealand.

I'm getting into this habit of creating calendar events for trips.

The course covers New Zealand landscape, culture, communities, development, tourism... and probably a heap of other things I cannot think of at this moment. We visited many small towns (ok, so every destination in Northland is practically a small town), got lost in said small towns (may only have one main road, but trust me, it's STILL possible to get lost), visited awesome beaches (yes, my darlings, plural!), camped on an island (where you can potentially see kiwi birds!), stayed in a marae (Wikipedia explains it well), and much more.

Acknowledgements/Disclaimer/Whatever

Since it's such a condensed trip, I'm going to break it down into 5 posts, but before I begin, I should really give some acknowledgements. Firstly and most obviously, the University of Auckland for providing such an awesome course. In particular, Joe F., 2013's course co-ordinator, Nick L., our food source/food van driver and Toto, my van group's driver. Of course, also a big thanks to the tutors ("drivers") who also contributed a huge part to making this road trip possible! With that said and done, I would like to add that all pictures that will appear in all subsequent posts were taken by me/my camera unless specifically noted otherwise (like most of the other photos that appear on this blog). Obviously, this means that I'm not going to make an appearance in the photos. I don't watermark my photos, they are memories meant to be shared otherwise I wouldn't make them public. Also, I don't take good enough photos to warrant someone stealing them for commercial purposes. Should there be a watermark appearing on some photos, it would be due to concerns raised by affected individuals.

The notebook we were given to take notes in.

I feel like ever since the beginning of this course, it's been drilled into us that Northland suffers the most in terms of tourism in comparison to all the other regions of New Zealand. While that is true, Northland doesn't fall on the typical tourist's "blue ribbon path" which traditionally consists of Auckland - Rotorua - Wellington - Queenstown - Christchurch or some sort of variance with sprinkles of Taupo, Wellington, and other major touristy destinations in between (in particular, areas that have benefited from the Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson's influence). Truth be told, it doesn't seem like there's much to do in Northland other than "posh" activities, or "boring" beaches and sightseeing. Well, it can't be boring if you love hanging at the beach or being surrounded by beauty... you could read ahead and decide for yourself. I've barely made it back to Auckland and I'm already itching to return! Currently planning a roadtrip up north with friends!

Part 1: Auckland to Paihia

The day started pretty early but I managed to drag myself out of bed in time. I had packed the night before but I still had to struggle to remember to do three things: pack the toothbrush, pack the electronics chargers and swap my earrings for the week. I feared I would forget one or all three so I set my alarm name to exactly that. During the last minutes before I left the house in a rush for uni, I managed to do one more thing: check the weather forecast for the week.

Not bad! We were expecting sun for Monday through Wednesday and then rain on Thursday and Friday.

My mother drove me to and dropped me off at university where I waited with my van group (7 others who I was going to spend the week with and participate in group activities with) for our van and the driver to arrive. Unfortunately for us all, the company didn't have a van ready for us so we had to wait for the company to find another van for us. Eventually, we were paired with a Ford and we set off for the north!

A mashup since these photos were taken from the back seat and are views out the windshield lol

Our first stop was Matakana, a small town in Rodney District - approximately 70kms from Auckland. To get here, take State Highway 1 (SH1) north bound, take the toll road (don't be stingy, it's only like three bucks) towards Warkworth. From there, take a right turn onto Matakana Road and keep going until you hit the town. Or you can ask Google. It's known for its vineyards, farmer's markets, boutiques, food shops, cinema and damn awesome public toilets. So awesome and worth seeing that Lonely Planet listed it as one of New Zealand's Top 5 alternative road trips! If Lonely Planet deemed it cool, it must be worth stopping by, surely!

We were welcomed by a Richard Didsbury, whom I assume to be a filthy rich man. He bought a ton of land and kick started development in Matakana. That town is basically his baby. He gave a talk and I'll give a brief introduction of the place based on my very poorly taken notes. If the information is incorrect, contact me and I'll correct it.

Matakana

Matakana is a small town with only about 500-800 people living there. There's constraints with the local population due to the rural zoning of the town and they just recently got sewers! Didsbury's project was a very high risk investment, with his visions for the town, it's easy to gauge just how high risk it was. Although there's a diversity of owners with very different viewpoints, leadership apparently rarely comes from locals. Matakana has taken a design path, the buildings look old but in reality, they are pretty new and you can see this if you look closely at the details!

Can you see the gargoyles if you squint?

There's one significant building that was built in 1840... the most important, some would say.

The Matakana Village Pub, est 1903

Ok so it says 1903, but the dude clearly said 1840. Perhaps it was something else for 60 odd years?

Most important thing? That would be the pub!

The Matakana Village and surrounding area is very young, only about 5-6 years old. Most of what you can see there was built recently. It was one of the original settlements and was more vibrant than Warkworth! There's a river that runs through Matakana, back in the day, no one knew there was a fantastic natural feature: a river with a nice waterfall which was hidden by industrial buildings like a sawmill. 

Said river, with ducks.

Isn't it so nice? Pretty cool view for a cafe.

Matakana is a place that attracts overseas visitors. The famous Farmer's Markets have very strict controls on who gets to set up stores for that one day a week event. There's a great focus on great food and drink, wine (there are vineyards there) with an emphasis on ethos and produce that's sustainable, natural, local and environmentally friendly. To keep it up during the night, shop windows are lit up at night to make it look appealing to night travelers and those who stop by for the night. Things that can be found in shopping malls (big brands, for example) are not really welcome and so are banks, instead, embracing small, local businesses with owners who love what they do. There are some exceptions though. Although, not quite an exception. There are some shops that started off local but they've done so well, they've expanded branches into bigger cities.

Other than that, the town plays quirky!!! You better watch out for killer eels!

That's not the only quirky thing. Public toilets are a major problem for many places. I was very impressed with the quality of the public toilets throughout Northland. Matakana's public toilets' design concept came from Kawakawa, another small town. The idea was to make public toilets attractive so the local public will appreciate it - turning something that's often a problem into something the community will value. If you tag it, you're gonna get jumped! There were no architects who participated in the design of these public loos, only sculptors. It took seven years to finish! The following picture is the winning design and the winner was a local lad, Setffan de Haan who apparently lived like 500m down the road! You know it's a big deal when the toilets are insured for $500,000.

By far, the coolest toilets I've ever used!

There's also the coolest local cinema! It's got loveseats with awesome leg room, an awesome chandelier and what's the hottest thing there? There's a cute cat that wanders around as he pleases.

I think he said it's 16 smaller chandeliers put together to make this big one. It hangs over the cinema.

Our second stop was Mangawhai, which is about 50km northwest (ish) of Matakana. You can take the backroad out of Matakana - not the typical tourist route, or if you're less adventurous, you can head back towards Warkworth and from there continue using SH1. The good thing about taking the back road is that after leaving Matakana, you catch the first glimpses of the east coast! There's obvious evidence of a change in landuse, from pasture to subdivision and development. There are by far, more "for sale" signs than road signs. It is said that pretty much, the entire east coast is up for sale. There's also a nice amount of "fake" trees when there weren't a lack of trees. They aren't actually fake. What I mean is that they aren't native and certainly weren't natural as they were intentionally planted there.

Mangawhai

We stopped by here for a quick talk from Nick and a looksee.

Can't remember what we learnt there except that that thing out there is called a barrier arm. It's like this makeshift refuge for animals.

Saw a helipad but no helicopter.

Langs Beach

Our third stop was Langs Beach where we did our first beach observation exercise followed by lunch and a swim for those who wanted to. Langs is about 15kms away and there's like only one road you can take from Mangawhai.

For our beach exercises we had to record various things like wind speed, width and length, wave height, wave type... you know, academic stuff. We finished up pretty quickly and broke apart for recreational activities.

Met this adorable dog called Missy!

Here's Nicole, an American from Boston University adoring the dog.

Here's me, looking so exhausted. Nicole took this photo.

My group took off for a walk after we were finished playing with the dog. We were looking for the beach sign to take a photo of and we found it eventually.

I hate my hair now. The lady cut it way too short but oh well. I'll survive.

I left the area with Nicole and on the way we saw cool bachs (kiwi holiday homes).

Look at those roots!

On the way back, Nicole climbed up the tree for a photo and then I tried. It was terrifying.

Final shot of Langs Beach.

Our next stop was Marsden Cove, 30kms away from Langs Beach. It was one hell of a journey! We first got lost because the van in front of us got lost. Then when we finally caught up with some other vans, we went on this little drive around Northland Port and Marsden Cove. At first, I thought it was stunning! There's this maze of roads with big, gorgeous houses situated on a rather generously sized piece of land... then when you get over how pretty the houses are, you notice that there's this canal running behind all the houses along these roads and every house has a jetty where you can anchor your boat there. I heard it's a joint venture between Northland Port and Hopper Developments Marsden Cove to develop a 700 section marine village, creating "THE WORLD'S BEST COASTAL LIFESTYLE".

It became my life goal right there and then to win the lotto and buy myself a property there. Unfortunately, the place hasn't taken up yet in terms of development. There are properties that have already been sold but there are also many left standing without owners and many empty lots waiting for someone to purchase and build something on. It's really quite sad. There are barely any shops nearby (unless they are just situated somewhere we didn't see, but that's doubtful). Unfortunately I didn't take any photos and I just did a Google image search for it but it's not quite turning up many pictures. So here's a picture of something else instead:

We were met by a guest speaker. They're trying to make the port into New Zealand's most important - drag away from Auckland's port to relieve it, and hoping more residents will move in and occupy as locals instead of bach owners.

Our last stop before Paihia was Ruapekapeka, 80kms away from Marsden. You head towards Whangarei on SH1. Whangarei is the largest urban area in the region. We didn't stop by, but it's bustling (as bustling as you can get with a town, or "small city") with cafes, boutiques and touristy things.

Ruapekapeka Pa - "The Bat's Nest" (of tunnels)

The reason we ventured to Ruapekapeka was because of the Pa site. It is a historical reserve with both national and international significance. Known for the sophisticated military techniques... it was technologically very advanced in terms of military tactics, you know with all those trenches for hiding and running away, bomb proof holes, bomb shelters, caves and passageways....

What made it so was really due to location, because it's so far from the sea, enemies had to trek in by foot. If you really wanted to kill someone at this site, you really had to work for it. The area was built by Nga Puhi Chief Te Ruki Kawhiti and was the site of the final battle in the Northern War, 1845-6.

Click to enlarge if you wanna read.

The entrance.

Holes.

The canon. 

There's this Totem pole at the top of the hill. As we walked towards it, Ger performed a call of greeting (at least I think it was). Everyone followed very respectfully and quietly behind him. I filmed some parts of it but I struggled with the decision to make that public. In the end, I decided not to share it.

Upon approach to the totem pole.

The Pouwhenua (totem pole) was erected by the Ngati Hau Tribe, 2010.

There's this inscription in Maori on a sign at the foot of the pole. I can't read it but Ger gave a rough translation, which I scribbled down quickly so perhaps it could be wrong. Basically, the whole thing is an acknowledgement of how important this place is; a move from a state of darkness to a state of enlightenment and peace.

To my cannon of anger
The gathering place of many
The Bats Nest

Paihia

Our final resting place for the day was Paihia, 35kms from Ruapekapeka. Take SH1 and veer off into SH11. That should take you straight there. Paihia is the main tourist center in the Bay of Islands. Early church societies were formed there to bring Christianity to locals. There are heaps of tourist facilities, it's basically a bunch of accommodation, a main street and a beach.

There's around 70 of us so we were split into three backpackers; my group stayed in Base. The room I stayed in had 6 people, 4 of whom were male and 3 of them were from another group. The room we were in had a small kitchen and a bathroom. I didn't see any equipment of use in the kitchen because the first thing we noticed was a spider. The bathroom on the other hand was a surprise to me because it was clean. Prior to this trip, I had very low expectations for toilet/shower facilities.

Base

Waiting for dinner...

The view as we waited for dinner.

The view we had while we ate our dinner!

We had dinner at a local restaurant; Hansen's Cafe & Pizzeria. They served us different pizzas, chips and salad in a buffet style. I was so happy with the salad, I love lettuce and cucumbers and this salad had heaps of both! The chips were amazing! I couldn't get over how delicious they were so I kept going up to get extra.

Best chips of my life.

Following dinner, we had a walk around town before stopping by for drinks at the bar near the backpackers. I chose a non alcoholic lemon, lime, bitters... only because I couldn't help myself. I love this drink. I did feel like a kid though when someone asked me what alcohol I put in. After our drinks, most of us retired to bed. The bed was comfortable but the pillows... oh god, the pillows were terrible. It was like a pillowcase... with a few feathers inside, which made falling asleep terribly difficult especially when the boys from the other group wouldn't stfu!