Driving days

For the next two days I hired a car and took a drive north, just a day trip, coming back to Auckland for night. As my first destination I chose Waitakere Ranges, a regional parkland west from Auckland. I had a big desire to drive on those narrow and winding roads of New Zealand. Once I got out of the city and to a proper country roads I was really enjoying my time. There's nothing better than a open, winding road ahead of you, great weather with stunning scenery and good music from radio. At first I drove to Piha, then thru Karekare and onto a narrow detour around the area and last but not least, I drove to Whatipu. To get to the end of road in Whatipu I had to drive for the last 4,5km on narrow gravel road that was hugging the mountains, what an amazing small stretch of road.

After Whatipu it was time head back towards Auckland and my hostel. On the next day I decided to start heading towards north from Auckland, this time driving to bit further away. As my first stop I drove to Devonport just to get a feeling from the place. Actually, it would have been quicker to go there with a ferry.. I had a brekkie at Devonport and started heading towards north on State Highway 1. Pretty boring strech of road, just a motorway. I skipped the toll road section - would have been only $2.20 - and drove thru Orewa to get out of motorway. After joining SH1 the road was back to a 'normal' two-lane road, now I could enjoy driving again. Even thou being one of the main highways, SH1 was still quite winding at places but yet again, so are pretty much all the roads in New Zealand. Or at least, that's what I've been told. I drove to Omaha Beach since fella from car rental told me it was a gorgeous beach. Well, not really.. After Omaha I headed towards Leigh and was aiming to Wellsford via Pakiri drivin again on a narrow, winding gravel road that was hugging a mountain. What a stretch of road again, maybe even slightly better than the one in Whatipu.

At times, scenery reminded me of Scotland. Just take few specific trees out from the view and you had a similar backdrop like in Highlands. I felt so good, even thou started to get a bit hungry and tired of driving. I still had about 2hrs to get back to Auckland and I was thinking how am I gonna survive this.. It all changed when I had a brief snack at Wellsford and decided to take State Highway 16 via Helensville back to Auckland. Was that a great drive, climbing up to the top of the world and then winding road down hugging the coast line. I was really enjoying the drive again, what a feeling.

Back to Auckland for night and I returned my car the next morning.