Christmas up North...

Mad enjoys a beer by Bonga
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Well, finally we finished getting Bonga ready for our Christmas holiday…2 weeks off and we were so excited as we’d been working since the wedding and were looking forward to a break. We got everything packed and headed up the coast towards our first stop then, disaster! Only half an hour out of Auckland - we were coming down a hill when we heard banging around inside the engine (we’re sat right on top of it in the van so it was quite noticeable that something was amiss!) so we pulled over as soon as we could. We opened up the engine access and steam hissed out from everywhere!!! Not a good sign. I rang our breakdown number (thankfully I’d programmed it into my phone previously – you can’t take a chance with a 23 year old van!!) and lucky for us they was a tow truck in the same area so they were there really fast. He looked at the engine and then looked back at us with the look of ‘uh oh!’…we were not getting back on the road that day! He towed us to Warkworth where we left our car with the mechanic (it was Saturday afternoon so they were just closing and crossed our fingers that it would be fixable on the Monday morning (Christmas eve!). We hired a car and headed back down to Auckland feeling pretty gutted. We decided to make the best of it so spent Sunday at the museum and went to the IMAX cinema which was great. Then we finally got a call on Monday morning to say they’d fixed the van so we drove back up to collect it – the water pump had collapsed, a belt had broken and flailed around inside the engine breaking a fan blade and lucky for us they had 1 water pump that fit and their last fan! The guy who did the repair had a white beard and we think he may have been Santa!!!

Getting festive!
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We headed straight up North hoping to salvage our getaway…first stop was at Taupo Bay – a beautiful beach with a few houses and a campsite. We spent a few nights there and chilled at the beach. We had a great Christmas day even though it drizzled we had a cosy BBQ under a tarp by the van and had pink champagne. We went to the beach and saw a pod of Dolphins playing in the bay – a great day!

we think he may have been Santa!

Meeting of the oceans at Cape Reinga
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On the way to our next stop we drove up to Cape Reinga, the Northern most point in NZ. What the map doesn’t tell you is that the last 23kms are unsealed road – we were very gentle on poor Bonga after the breakdown and he made it safe and sound there and back. Lots of buses and big 4WDs overtook us but we made it! It was great to see the two oceans meet and hear about the Maori legend of how the spirits of the dead make their way up to the Cape. It’s quite a spiritual place and the views were amazing.

The Pohutukawa tree that spirits are channeled through...
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Then we headed down to Tauranga Bay, a few beaches a long from where we got married and stayed at a lovely site right on the beach. The weather was great and we swam and snorkelled and had lots of BBQs by the van. We visited a little village called Mangonui and had wonderful fish and chips and tried deep fried oysters which were fantastic!

Then for New Years we headed west to Ahipara, also known as Shipwrecks – a great surf beach when the waves are working…sadly for us they weren’t great but we had a surf anyway! Spent more time on the beach and walking along 90 mile beach – had a chilled New Years and yet another BBQ and champers!

Mike at Cape Reinga
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On the way back down we took the West coast road through the Kauri forests and stopped to look at the giant trees. We drove down to the Trounson Kauri Park where we went on a night walk in the forest and saw Kiwis in the wild…sneaking around a dark forest with a red torch. We saw glow worms, massive eels but the highlight was the Kiwis as it’s really lucky to see then in the wild! On our last day we stopped off at Muriwai, a surf beach on the West coast, the surf was too big and wild to be any good so we went for a walk to the Gannet colony on the cliffs. We were so close to them and saw them feeding their chicks then diving off the cliffs and heading out to sea to hunt.

Even Bonga gets into the festive spirit!
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All in all it was a good save after the Bonga incident and we got a taste of what it’ll be like when we’re travelling around.