At recommendation of some Kiwis I met hiking, I decided to head

 over to the west coast of the Northlands and view some these allegedly very large Kauri trees.  I had originally planned to drive all the way to Cape Renga at the far north, but they convinced me- along with the drive I had already done to get to the Bay- that it was not worth it if one was short of time.  It is quite a ways and the roads can be slow as you go through quite a few little uninteresting towns.

So I headed for the Kauri forest through some very twisty roads- it felt like the turns were about 175 degrees half the time.   I was defintiely questioning my decision to go as it started raining a bit on the way and was not a relaxing drive.   When I finally got there, I found you had to hike quite a ways in over difficult terrain to see the best trees and so I laced up my boots and made sure I had plenty of water and provisions-

I bushwacked my way in and got to the, um, viewing platform and was looking at a fairly large tree and thinking- that is nice, but not really that special, when I turned around and saw this unbelievably large tree over 17 meters around (I had been looking the wrong way)- WOW!! I exclaimed with my ability to a turn a unique phrase-

You cannot imagine how big this tree was (largest Kauri in the world).  It looked like something out of Tolkien and Lothlorien in Middle Earth.  Not exceptionally high, but just guargantuan girth.  Pictures cannot really capture it and them.

I decided that these extraordinary trees had made the drive worthwhile and saw what the Kiwi hikers meant when they said the trees were stunning.  But the day of unexpected events was not over as I headed for the old logging town of Dagarville on the West Coast.  I had booked an old hotel there as it was simply on my way back to Auckland.

I

I got there tired and hungry and the owner and his wife- a 65ish old couple who owned a nearby beef farm as it turned out- were having a dinner with friends in the large old dining room and they invited me to joiin then and have a glass of wine.  We discussed NZ politics, history, farming, the hotel/b&B business, and hiking- it was just a suprising delight and, also partly because of the charm of the hotel (which they had completely refurbished without altering the 19th character of the place, turned out to be one of best places I stayed and a trip highlight.

And as headed down the West Coast, I took a couple of pictures of farms like theirs which roll down to the sea-