Oct 21st – Monday was our opportunity to travel north to Whangarei. This is a Maori word so the ‘wh’ is pronounced like our ‘f’. On the way up towards Helensville, we stopped first at the local gannet colony (nothing compared to Newfoundland) and then at the Kumeu River winery that was written up in the Globe and Mail. We sampled and purchased two bottles of the recommended wine to share with friends along the way. What’s bought in NZ has to be drunk in NZ!

We also stopped at the Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens and spent about an hour strolling along a path which led through formal gardens dotted with locally made sculptures. It was quite interesting even though many of the spring flowering trees were just about over.

Lunch was a quick sandwich and apple eaten in the car since we had a fairly long drive ahead of us.

 

 

The Whangarei area is full of lovely scenery and we stopped a number of times to take in the view. We also found our first beach  and took a brief walk along the beach. Too cold for swimming but nice to walk in.