With the tour of the Shire completed, we still had a long day ahead. Tomorrow our focus will be on the Kauri forests. To be prepared for that we needed to head four hours north to Matakohe, two hours beyond Auckland.
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On the road again!
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The semi-tropical nature of the North Island was evident in the front yard trees of a farm we passed.
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About an hour away from the movie set, we came upon a lrger highway.
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We started to see some contemporary neighbourhoods as we entered Auckland.
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We’re entering the big city now!
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Coming out the north side of Auckland, we run into more road works. We had been in a crush of traffic coming into the south side of the city. Now exiting the city on the north side, we see traffic backed up going into town. It was a Sunday afternoon, there must have been some major event going on.
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Having left Highway 1 to head west to Matakohe, we drove through the cute little village of Paparoa.
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We stayed at the Matakohe Holiday Park, a quiet seaside campsite with nice facilities.
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There’s a gardener here!
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Canna lilies seemed to be growing wild!.
Our morning in Matakohe started with a greeting from one of the campground’s resident dogs.
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We had breakfast with the company of this friendly fellow and headed off for a day of contrasts. We started with The Kauri museum, which is a tribute to the forest industry and the products it produced and ended with a Maori-guided twilight walk through two remnant areas of kauri forest.