Getting into the routine of getting ourselves up and ready in a good time would take a while but we were both surprised at how well we slept in the van. It wasn’t bad at all! So we enjoyed our first breakfast on the road in NZ and before long we were packed and ready to be on the move. This was a breeze compared to camping with the little tent in America! We decided to pass by The Bay of Islands, mainly as we didn’t want to be where everyone goes, and from what we’ve read we’re going to be seeing a lot of this kind of landscape and ocean as we travel, plus we can always pass by on our way back down!

We ventured went a little further up the coast, passed more beautiful beaches and eventually landed at Matauri Bay. This bay is stunning, hardly anyone was there, the sand is white, the sea is crystal clear and all in all it was pretty idyllic. We walked along the beach and up to the Rainbow Monument on the top of the hill overlooking the bottom end of the bay. The monument is a tribute to Rainbow Warrior lying beneath the sea surface a few kilometres out of the bay. It was moved there after the ship was bombed whilst on an anti-nuclear weapons protest years ago, something worth reading about. We got chatting to a guy who was camping at the Matauri Bay campground resort, he said it was $14/person so we thought we’d enquire. It just felt right to stay there, the weather was fantastic, and the setting perfect so we booked in for the night.

Earlier on we’d spotted a few people digging in the shallow sea water for what appeared to be clams, they’re actually called pipi’s. So we thought we’d like to try and get some for our tea! The only problem was the tide was already on it’s way in and it appeared as though people had got their catch for the day. Dave managed to get one from underground and then we found a few more around the surface but after nearly an hour of searching we knocked it on the head and put them back into the sea. We will try again next time! The resort has laundry facilities, hot showers, and a shared kitchen so we took advantage of all of these and enjoyed a little spot of luxury. For sunset we walked up to the memorial again, sat and took it all in. We were in an amazing spot taking in the views of the bays around us, the moon was already on show.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We started the day with a trip to a Pak’n'Save, there is one located 10 minutes north of Newmarket, although we stumbled across it. We stocked up with canned goods and a few essentials for cooking, although we would be coming back sooner than anticipated! Then we were set to go, a full tank of fuel set us back $60 and we were on our way north.

We drove up to Whananaki Bay which in total took around 5 hours from leaving with stops for lunch and a few sights along the way. We got our first taste of New Zealands rolling hillsides and for Po it was a chance for us to get her up and down some hills, gravel tracks and highways. The landscape is lush all around with rich greens, tree-life and birds everywhere and we were surprised at how quiet the roads were.

Having picked up a DOC camp guide booked for both North and South Island we picked out a campsite for the night at Whananaki, it’s south of the Bay of Islands and in a remote spot around 30km towards the coast from SH1. When we arrived it was all pretty straight forward, there was a camp host (this we were used to from camping in America) and there were pit toilets (same) but it was much nicer than most of the campsites we’d experience in the USA.

The facilities were really clean, and seemed brand new with cold showers to fit, plus we were right on a bay front. The sand was white and the sea was really calm, we picked out our spot and were proud of our first day out on the road. This campsite cost $8 each with an additional $2 fee for rubbish disposal bags and recycling. We explored the area and watched people trying to fish, we’ve inherited some fishing gear with the van so we’re thinking this is something that would be good to pick up at some stage.

Our first camping meal was left over curry from the night before and we enjoyed a full moon with some long exposures to capture the light over the campsite.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)