Kauri Forest

Once we left our farm early in the morning we headed for the ferry crossing, again the wind was insane.  The ferry was smooth considering the weather and we arrived in one piece with some laughs.
We have just finished our first week in the van and we have quickly realized it is not the way to go.  All of the campervan sites have self contained units, full kitchen and bathroom facilitys and usually a TV/common living area. If we could choose again we would opt for a car and travel much more comfortably, and cheeper on gas. With that being said it is handy to have somewhere to lay down easly, and we have cooked in the van quite a few times.
We headed toward the Kauri Forest, to scope out some of these magnificient trees and forest.  The first one was breathtaking and beautiful, then we made our way up to the hike area to the forest walk.  We were greeted by a friendly security man who stays by the cars at all time because of car break in, which he explained does not really happen anymore since they have been there.  The hike was easy and very pretty, this is definetly a sight to be seen and not missed if you go to NZ.  After our hike, we headed to the Kauri Museum which once again was alot bigger than we imagined.  Museums have been a shock, interesting, big and well done.  Lots of cool history about the forest and the trees.  Ray really liked all the old machines in the museum, like a kid in a candy store.
We popped up the road for a place to camp, there was really only one place so that will do I guess....it was fine till early morning.  Then I swear the van was going to tip over and it was hailing and howling.   The door almost ripped of it's hinges as we tried to get in and out and I was getting pushed around by the wind as I tried to carry dishes and things from the common area.  Ray had a heck of a time trying to fill the water tank, he looked a little nervous the van might fall on him.
We finally headed off towards Auckland again to drive through and find our way to Matamata, and if none of you are familiar with this town you will be by the next post......hehehhehe!