Two At Sea

January 18, 2013

This is getting to be our new favorite soft drink.  Apparently, it isn’t much available outside of New Zealand.  It’s kind of lemon meets seltzer water.  Not too sweet.  Very nice.

December 2012 – March 2013

While visiting Rainbow Falls, we walked partway down the trail leading to the Kerikeri Basin.  This trail follows a river through beautiful forested countryside.  This vegetation is actually very typical of what you’ll see on a Northland (the area North of Auckland) New Zealand trail walk. -Cyndi  (Click to enlarge and scroll using “next image” through photos below.)

December 2012 – March 2013

Rainbow Falls is another example of a worthy sight that gets no publicity.  It’s just outside Kerikeri and a place you can hike to in an hour or so from the famous Kerikeri Basin (link). We always meant to do the hike but never got around to it, and now our time here was running out.  Looking at a map, it looked like we could drive to the falls from a neighborhood street.  Sure enough, the street ended in a designated parking area with paths to the falls.

At the end of one path we were stunned to find falls worthy of a national park, surprisingly big with numerous overlooks.  At the base of the falls is a beautiful trail that follows the river to the Kerikeri Basin.  I couldn’t believe this isn’t a more famous site like the Kerikeri Basin nearby!  We later talked to people who’ve lived in Kerikeri for years and have never seen Rainbow Falls.  Unbelievable! -Cyndi

December 2012 – March 2013

It’s easy to get to Haruru Falls from the main highway, but there’s a back road that’s neat to see.  It starts in Waitangi, winds through a golf course, then heads inland through pastures to the Falls.  It’s partly unpaved but well-maintained, and it’s well worth getting a little dust on the car to enjoy this scenery. -Cyndi

December 2012 – March 2013

As we got settled into our new home base in Opua, we started to do some exploring outside of our Bay of Islands neighborhood and seeing the sights of Northland New Zealand, both the major sites that any travel guide would cover and the lesser sights that only a local guidebook would cover.  We eventually got around to some places that were barely mentioned anywhere, stopping by a spot just to take a look only to be taken aback by how lovely it was.

A good example of this scenario was Haruru falls.  We had passed by a sign for this many times but thought it was just a suburban neighborhood off the main highway, basically because none of our guidebooks had mentioned it.  Finally sometime told us there are actually falls there; plus there’s a lovely back road to the area we might enjoy.  He was right; we enjoyed it very much! -Cyndi