Your cart is currently empty!
Camping on Great Barrier Island
Digital Imaging Ambassador
With Jade moving down to Queenstown and last chance with our own set of wheels up north we had to make a last stint of the North. The choice was between northland and Great Barrier.
There was also the thought of the East Cape as we got to check that area out but as always needed more time. Check out this trip here..
Being that we wanted to make the most of the car, so Northland would make more sense as you don’t need a car on Great Barrier. It came to us that we wanted to travel less and chill. To cover Northland was a fair bit of driving over 2 weeks. We wanted to just settle and ground ourselves.
Then we came across a dilemma, flying is instant and only an hour, that saves 3hrs driving into the concrete city of Auckland then a 5 hour ferry over and then the same back. Here’s the BUT part, we couldn’t go over there without a board. That was a silly question really. We decided we’d haul it over by foot with the board on the ferry.
It was quite a testament to the challenge of hitching around the island with a board as we didn’t think too much about that. It worked out perfectly as our friends Moa and Dave who live on Great Barrier island happily greeted us.
It was Autumn now so the days weren’t as boiling but meant we had the campground almost to ourselves. Super relaxing and peaceful. Right on the beach, fishing and surfing. That was pretty much us for the trip in all honesty. We explored some of the local shops, hitched our way around, found the one take away shop for fish and chips, went spearfishing, foraged, surfed and surfed a bit more. This was our mega highlight though. The natural hot pools. It was something special and really where we came away feeling very relaxed. Honestly I think its the most grounding hot pool I’ve ever been in.
For us it was the simple things, I put the camera down more, morning walks, fished and foraged, relaxed and enjoyed simple moments.
That was the opposite to us leaving. We hitched over to the other side of the island, we underestimated how long the walk from the shops to the ferry was going to take. Breaking not just a sweat but unleashing a pool of sweat, luckily a friendly local let us sit in the back of the ute, took us right to the dock. Arriving in Auckland was chaotic, flashing lights, horns, buzzing, fast things. One extreme to another.
