A road-trip from Wellington up to the Far North of the North Island, hoping for some relief from cold wintery conditions. The cold temperatures followed us up there, but we had little rain during the two-week trip, and even managed some sea-swimming.
Lake Taupo at sunset: a white-faced heron stalks the lake edge.
Heading north from Taupo on a hard frosty morning – here the sun is finally burning off the fog; then cloud of a different kind as the paper-mill at Kinleith fires up. An attractive old building at Lichfield.
Walking from Kaimaumau roadend up to the entrance of Rangaunu Harbour and westwards along East Beach.
Gannets gathered just beyond the breakers; a big flock of spoonbills on the water’s edge at Kaimaumau.
A white-faced heron in a huge tree overlooking the family bach. Pointsettia in bloom, enclosing the wall of the old bach.
Ninety Mile Beach – the vehicle access at Waipapakauri Ramp. Those rocks with the dark shadows at the bottom left remind me of the NASA moon landings when the astronauts cruised around in a moon-buggy!
Back on East Beach; tidal channels exposed at low tide.
Sunrise on the Tutukaka coast
Otito Track past Whale Bay to Matapouri Bay, watched by shags roosting on a pohutukawa tree. The Spirit of New Zealand barquetine passes offshore.
Rivulets on Matapouri Beach.
Colourful rock outcrops at Pataua South.
Further south to Whangarei Heads. We walked along the Mount Aubrey ridge; in the background on the left is Mount Manaia, an awesomely pinnacled massif.
A jellyfish-shaped rainbow; Mount Manaia in more detail; looking down on an oil tanker berthed at Marsden Point.
Next morning, we climbed up and along the Te Whara Ridge, looking north along Ocean Beach, and looked down on Bream Head from the site of a WW2 radar station. Scrambled through huge blocks of fallen rock; dropped down a steep track (810 wooden steps!) for a swim at Peach Cove.
Returning southwards:
Lake Taupo, with the amazing view of Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe to the south.
Huka Falls in full flow. Sunset across the lake.
