Jan 15-20 cont

On Monday we began weaving our way 2.5 hours north of Auckland to John and Iris' lovely little beach house in Tinopai: Candy Cottage. It was built around 1907 and is a piece of local history as it was the area's post office and general store. They rescued it 17 years ago in a dilapidated condition, and after much work it is gorgeous! The drive up was filled with green rolling hills, pastures with cows and sheep, Maori villages, and the ancient and unusual Kauri tree. The vegetation is so interesting because it seems to combine the tropics with the north woods (both pine trees and palms)--it feels very pre-historic. We stopped at the Kauri Museum in Matakohe which houses many examples of the enormous tree in it's raw form as well as in carvings and home furnishings. It is one of the oldest trees known, and has been recorded at upwards of 40 meters with a diameter of 9 meters and as old as 40,000 years! It was very heavily logged so there aren't many examples left of the very large older trees, but the younger ones are growing and many are being planted. We had a great evening and watched the film "Earth" which had phenomenal cinematography and we would both highly recommend.

On Tuesday we wound our way back down to Aukland through sleepy beach towns and gorgeous coast. Whangari, Waipu Cove, Langs Beach (awesome modern, green architecture), Mangawhai Heads, Wellsford, stopped for a dip in the hot pools at Wenderholm Regional Park, Waiwera beach, watched kite surfers at Orewa, and back home again. It's hard to keep it all straight now, but we really liked the beautiful coastline with the pounding surf and the interesting houses pilled up along the east coast. It was so great to be shown around by locals...we would have never found those things ourselves!



Garden at Candy Cottage


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