After the fireworks finished last night a cold front must have snuck through as we woke up to a sunny but cooler day.
We set off north to Kaitaia which is on the southern end of the northern most peninsular in New Zealand. Originally we had hoped to all the way up to the northern tip, but we were a day too short to do it comfortably.
The roads were a lot smoother today making for a more relaxing drive, unfortunately there were very few sheep around, so I wasn’t able to create any sheep races by honking the horn. Although there were plenty of cattle they don’t like to play that game. We encountered different scenery over fairly small distances. We went from rolling green hills to rugged cliffs, to quiet waterfalls and also beaches.
View From the Passenger Seat
Our first stop Kawakawa to see the “artistic” toilets designed by Herr Hundertwasser, an Austrian painter, architect philosopher and ecologist. I wasn’t too taken by his toilet design in the town, hopefully he was better at his other trades.
Crazy Toilets – Outside
Crazy Toilets – Inside
Seems the whole town got in on the act of using ceramic tiles as there were many designs and murals throughout the town done in ceramic, and even a sofa.
Tiled Sofa
We continued through the changing scenery until we came to a suitable place for lunch. We have been making our own lunches for most of the trip to prevent us (me?) having home made pie and chips every day. We found a nice peaceful waterfall today for our lunch venue.
Tranquil Waterfalls
Today, being Sunday, saw many older cars on the road. There were quite a few from the 1920-30’s as well as the 1970’s. It was probably largest number of older cars that we had seen that weren’t associated with a gathering.
Mid afternoon we came down a long hill overlooking a beach, so we stopped off for our afternoon exercise.
Beach
Tomorrow, if the weather is good, and time allows, we will go a litle way up the peninsular before heading south back to Auckland.