The journey north

Our plan was to head north up the east coast of North Island as far as Cape Reinga, where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.
Our first stop was Orewa, just north of Auckland in a Top 10 campsite. Not a great introduction to camping as the campsite was rather full of permanent caravans and the only decent site free was a small site next to an estuary which opened out on to a huge beach. Michael failed to park the van on flat ground, so we felt like we were walking up and down hill inside and the gas  bottle failed to work and worse thing of all.... we couldn't get the DVD to play!! I was starting to wonder what we had let ourselves in for!
All was sorted the following day as Michael took the camper into a recognised repair place in the town.
 29'C was recorded on the dashboard as we drove further up to winding picturesque roads to Waipu cove. We spent a night here on the beach in a privately owned site. Laundry was done and we ate out in a fab place for supper where we ordered 'hotdogs' for the children thinking of sausages in a roll and the sausages turned out on sticks, covered in batter and deep fried!
The beach ran for miles and was covered with amazing shells which Bea collected. We could see clearly the Chicken and Hen islands just off shore.
Tuesday 2nd Feb we continued up the undulating coast line to the Bay of Islands. We marvelled at the beautiful countryside as we drove with the windows wide open in the heat. We stayed at 'Beachside' campsite. NOT a beach, more a muddy, dirty water inlet, very disappointing..... couldn't wait to leave. It was quite difficult to see the islands from the coast and we were not prepared to take a boat out. So headed on via a quick visit to Waitangi, to the Karikari peninsula.