A visit to Dargaville, Baylys Beach, Kai Iwi Lakes & the Waipoua Kauri Forest
Travel Location: Dargaville,New-Zealand
We had a fun weekend up around Dargaville, a town on the west coast of Northland. We stayed at the Kaihu Farm Hostel which Avani loved. There were lots of animals there that she liked, including cows, sheep, two pet kunekune pigs, and a great farm dog, Buster. And since there were chickens there, we had to hear multiple times about how the rooster kicked her cousin, Addie, back in MN in October!
It was great to be back in a hostel again, with the simple amenities, communal atmosphere, and great conversation with other travelers. The hostel had a beautiful track, or hiking trail, through lush bush to a small glow worm dell. “Bush”, if I haven’t said it before, is the most underwhelming name Kiwis have for fantastically gorgeous forest, dense with giant tree ferns, long vines, nikau palms, and conifers.
The water is warm and crystal clear and the beaches are white and sugary soft.
On Friday we headed over to Baylys Beach, which is on the longest stretch of drivable beach in New Zealand – the 100km long Ripiro Ocean Beach. The sand is extremely hard-packed and people drive on it like it’s a highway. The beach overlooks the Tasman Sea, which is beautiful and completely undeveloped. Avani enjoyed it until a rogue wave knocked her off her feet and rolled her about 20 feet up the beach. After the initial scare, she took it well and wanted to do it again (minus the water in her nose).
We spent the first part of Saturday at the Dargaville Field Days, which was very Aggie to say the least. There was not enough good food and fun shopping for us and a little too much agricultural equipment, although the “De-Crap-It” attachment for a truck was interesting.
We went over to Kai Iwi lakes in the afternoon. They are three amazing freshwater lakes that were formed by rainwater filling in inland sand dunes. The water is warm and crystal clear and the beaches are white and sugary soft. Avani had a great time splashing about and not getting knocked about by waves. On Saturday night, we went to Trounson Kauri Park on the recommendation of the hostel owner and got to listen to wild kiwis calling to each other. Even though we didn’t see one, it was still a great treat since these small flightless birds are so rare now.
We spent Sunday hiking in the Waipoua Kauri Forest, the largest remnant of the once extensive kauri forests (now 95% gone due to logging in the 19th century). These are some of the largest trees on the planet and pictures just can’t relay how enormous and beautiful they are. We saw one tree, Te Mahua Ngahere (“Father of the Forest”) that was 53 feet in girth and about 2000 years old, and another, Tane Mahuta (“God of the Forest”) that is the largest kauri tree still living. Avani kept saying “Wow, that’s a big tree”.
