A little bit of drizzle as we set off from our campsite in a tiny sandy cove but it brightened up as we stopped to admire the view across Karikari bay to view the northernmost part of NZ on the other side.The other side of that peninsula lies ninety mile beach,a long sandy beach that you can drive in a 4x4 all the way to Te Paki a massive set of sand dunes which you can sand board down. Our main priority though was to find fuel as the diesel pump at the next township was inoperative. The owner of the village shop kindly rang the next shop 50km away to check that they had fuel. They did so we carried on and we were glad that we did. The scenery was stunning as signs of agriculture and habitation grew less and less. The sea was to our left and right. We could see white sand dunes that looked like breakers on one side and on the other huge sand dunes. The vegetation got scruffier and more stunted as we neared Cape Reinga,the northernmost accessible bit of NZ at the top of state highway 1. From here you can see the Tasman sea and the Pacific meet which cause some big breakers just off the lighthouse that stands proudly all alone facing the rest of the world.
It was now time to retrace our steps and head back towards Auckland,getting up close to the sand dunes and some of the twistiest and narrow mountain roads we have experienced here .
As night was falling we parked up in the first campsite we could find and cleaned up the mess caused by a half finished bottle of wine whose screwcap had undone itself in the mountains.