(Photo opposite: Maori Cultural Performance at Auckland Museum) Every traveler in New Zealand usually has a favorite island. Having only spent time on the South Island, this was currently my favorite. I had enjoyed every single second of my time on the lower half of this extraordinary country and I couldn’t imagine that the North Island would ever live up to my experiences thus far.

I’m still traveling with Stray, www.straytravel.com, on the Max Pass, which covers the majority of New Zealand’s two islands. From Wellington, we have a full day’s journey to Auckland, and as usual, the scenery prevents me from sleeping the voyage away. You can’t close your eyes while you’re traveling here; it would be sacrilegious. There are a few stops on the long crossing where you can get off, but from Auckland, I’ll be doing the circuit of the North Island, so I just sit back and relax.

Auckland

I’ve stated this in an earlier piece in this series, but I think it needs reiterating here – New Zealand’s treasures lie within its National Parks, its landscapes and wildlife– in a word – outdoors. I am normally a city girl, but in New Zealand I would rather put my energy into exploring the wilderness. Not that I have anything against Auckland, but I did put in the minimum time here.

That said - there are definitely a few places worth checking out. The Auckland Museum displays fascinating weapons, jade, canoes, dinosaurs and the humbling War Memorial. You can also see a Maori Cultural Performance that is entertaining as well as educational. The performers explain the theory behind their song and dance and dazzles your eyes with their fast manipulations of balls and sticks.

Another must-see is the Sky Tower. How often can you stand atop the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere? Offering a great view at night or during the day, Sky Tower is the twelfth tallest tower in the world, taller than both Sydney’s AMP Tower and the Eiffel Tower. If you’re really brave, you can base jump by wire and fall for 16 seconds at about 75 kilometers per hour. A slightly less scary option is the Sky Walk – where you can walk the circumference of the Sky Tower on a 1.2-meter wide ledge, 192 meters above the ground. There are no railings – only a safety harness.

My last piece of advice for visitors to Auckland is to save a few hours for Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World. If you’ve read my previous articles on the South Island, you’ll know I’m slightly obsessed with Antarctica, but this is an experience anyone would enjoy.

A replica hut of the world famous Antarctic explorer Captain Scott begins the southern adventure, which includes an Antarctic snow cat and a viewing of King and Gentoo Penguins. From there, you step on to a moving sidewalk which takes you through Underwater World – a tunnel that holds 2 million liters of ocean water. Some of the most amazing sea creatures you’ll ever encounter up close live here – broadnosed sevengill sharks, stingrays, moray eels and crayfish, just to name a few.

Equally impressive is the fish gallery – you’ll have no problem Finding Nemo here, along with nudibranchs, piranhas and seahorses. If you time it just right, you might even catch a feeding at Stingray Bay.

Bay of Islands

One of the north island’s highlights, the Bay of Islands, is not included in the Max Pass. There are a number of passes you can choose from to explore this portion of the country, and I went with the Patch Pass, which takes in major sites. The first destination is Paihia, a small town of around 7000 people. From here, your choices are endless. My first day is spent on my favorite part of the earth – the ocean. Carino Sailing, www.sailinganddolphin.co.nz, offers sailing trips with the possibility of swimming with dolphins. I realize that I have just recently swum with dusky dolphins on the south island, but these are bottlenose dolphins.

As I board the 50-foot catamaran, the sun is already heating my face. I stretch out on the net and get set to relax. As we move farther away from civilization, there are less boats and more green, rolling hills gently meeting the dark blue of the ocean. It’s not long before we find a pod of dolphins. Unfortunately, we’re not able to swim with them as several calves form part of the group. But no worries; the show they put on above the water is as exciting as being in it with them.

There must be close to twenty dolphins in the pod, and they take turns flipping in and out of the water. Two come so close to the boat that I worry they’ll get hurt, but they dart underneath us so fast that they turn into a blur. Just before they finish their performance, one slippery gray dolphin flies out of the water, flips in mid-air and lands so near that it splashes my face.

The rest of the afternoon passes by in a relaxed haze. A delicious lunch in a secluded cove proves my point about where New Zealand’s highlights lay. The fresh air, the untouched land and sea birds flying overhead leave no doubt in my mind that this is where I’d rather be.

Waitangi Day

Early the next morning, a short walk up the beach from Paihia brings me to Waitangi. It’s February 6, otherwise known as Waitangi Day. On this day in1840, local Maori chiefs and the representatives of Queen Victoria’s government signed The Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. On February 6, services and festivals take place all over the country to commemorate the signing of the treaty, but the ceremonies in Waitangi itself are unbeatable.

The services start at dawn, but I couldn’t bring myself to get up quite that early. It’s about 9:00 a.m. as I take my place, already sweltering, on Te Tii Beach. As I look towards the bright sun making its way upward, I can see the outlines of several Maori war canoes, or wakas. As they paddle their way towards us, the Maori warriors’ chants reach across the water to the crowd gathered on the beach.

A young boy with his hair cut in a Mohawk, picks up a huge shell and begins to blow through it, causing the crowds to become silent. The wakas are near. Once the canoes reach the shore, the warriors – some in full dress – take their places on the sand for more chanting, dancing and even some protesting. Discrepancies between the English and Maori version of the Treaty still cause some dispute, and Waitangi is famous for the protests that accompany the celebrations.

A group of four men, dressed only in jean shorts, stand in a row facing the beach. Their bare chests broadcast numerous tattoos. Without any signal, they all start chanting the Haka, the famous Maori war dance. A large woman stands beside them, adding her own loud voice to the mix. I can’t tell if she’s on their side, or against them.

After the chanting stops, I move on to the Treaty Grounds. Admission fees are waived on Waitangi Day and I spend some time exploring the famous Ngatokimatawhaorua (Maori War Canoe) and whare runanga (meeting house). The Treaty House is more of a museum and houses a copy of the original treaty.

At noon, a 21 Gun Salute takes place on the Treaty Grounds. A marching band of officers dressed in white stand out against the green grass and blue ocean in the distance. They stop at a huge flagpole, which marks the actual location of where the treaty was signed and the salute begins. As the smoke from the guns fades into the water, I feel truly blessed to have been a part of this celebration.

Cape Reinga

For my last day in the Bay of Islands, I hop back on the Stray bus, albeit a very special Stray bus, for a trip to the very tip of the island. Our first stop is a Kauri Forest. One of the world’s mightiest trees, a Kauri can grow up to 50 meters tall with a 16 meter circumference. A group of us has a great time linking arms around a huge trunk; it takes 6 of us before we’re able to make a complete circle. Looking up at the top of the tree from its base makes me dizzy – it seems as if it’s touching the sky, and this isn’t even the biggest tree in the forest.

One of our main destinations for the day is Ninety Mile Beach – the reason for our special Stray bus. Our Dune Rider is specially built to drive on sand, and as we hit the beach, the bus proves extremely useful. With a vast expanse of sand both behind and ahead of us, we cruise along the turquoise waters. We stop about ten minutes into our drive to take some photos near the remnants of a car buried in the sand.

Farther down the beach, huge sand hills make for perfect sand dune surfing; sliding down the mini mountains on boogie boards. The worst part is the trek up the hill – but as you slide down the hill on your belly, with views of the rolling waves crashing onto the endless sand, it’s all worth it.

Our last stop is Cape Reinga – the (nearly) northernmost tip of the country. A stunning lighthouse sits atop a cliff overlooking the expanse of water. Here, if you look closely, you can see the line where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. A collection of road signs points in various directions, offering the distance to cities around the world. I’m only 6059 nautical miles from Vancouver.

Whangarei

My next destination is the town of Whangarei. The chief city in the Northland, my only reason for visiting is to do a day trip out to the Poor Knight Islands – one of the world’s premier diving locations. I know it’s going to be a good day when I spot a huge stingray in the shallow waters as we board the boat. The Poor Knights lie 23 kilometers off the shore, and after about an hour of riding over the rough water, we finally arrive.

The islands are not exactly what I was expecting – they look more like huge boulders plopped into the middle of the ocean instead of the sandy beaches I was imagining. A huge rock formation immediately catches my eye; the center of it is hollowed out, creating a tunnel against which the dark blue water crashes in white waves. I can’t wait to see what’s beneath.

A subtropical current from the Coral Sea reaches the islands, giving it a unique combination of tropical and subtropical fish. This is one of the reasons the Poor Knights have been rated as one of the top 10 diving spots in the world. The water is crystal clear, and as I descend, I involuntarily shiver. The last place I dived was the Great Barrier Reef and the water here is noticeably colder, but what I see when I arrive at the ocean floor erases all temperature related thoughts from my mind. Huge green carpets of kelp line the floor, and I almost get dizzy watching it sway.

Within minutes, the dive master has pointed out a group of nudibranchs. The colorful sea slugs have been on my list of things to see in the wild for a long time now and their white bodies covered with orange spots and pink tentacles instantly etch a permanent picture in my mind.

A bit farther down the rock wall lies a black nudibranch, outlined in electric blue. A few minutes later, I swim over a sandy patch inhabited by the biggest stingray I have ever encountered. He senses our presence and with a swirl of his tail, he’s off into the distance. But that’s not the end of the wildlife – a small green moray eel is snuggling into a rock wall covered with sea life. Its thick green body waves with the current as its white eyes gape at me above a wide-open mouth. I can barely tear myself away, but it’s time to surface.

After a quick lunch and a brief rest, it’s finally time to descend once again. I’m the first one in, this will be my last dive in the Poor Knights and I’m ready to make the most of it. Almost immediately, we encounter a school of Blue Mao Mao. The small fish completely surround one of the divers, and the water becomes thick with the abundant creatures.

I see a few more nudibranchs and another eel hiding under some kelp, but the prize of this dive is a scorpion fish. Its huge yellow eyes give it away, otherwise, its mottled brown skin camouflages it perfectly. Over the course of the dive, we see trevally, wrasses, leatherjackets and perch, just to name a few. I can see why Jacques Costeau called this one of the top ten diving sites in the world.

That night, I have one more thing to cross off my list – glowworms. I’m staying at the YHA for this reason in particular, the manager does free glow worm walks at night. It’s a warm night, and I’m sweating as we hike up the hill towards the cave. We’re walking along a riverbank, and I see my first spot of blue-green light in the grassy hill opposite the river. But we hardly stop to look at this, for something much better lies ahead.
When we reach the cave, we’re instructed to turn off the flashlights. As my eyes adjust to the dark, I can see a blue glow emanating from the tiny cave. One by one, we’re invited in to see the spectacle up close. The tiny dots of white-blue light amaze me; it’s hard to believe they are simply insect larva glowing with bioluminescence. There must be hundreds of them, and as I stand there surrounded by this living glow, I mentally add Whangarei to my list of favorite places in New Zealand.

For a closer look at life overseas, check out my e-book, Watching Clocks Sing in Turkish, detailing the adventure-filled year I spent teaching in Turkey!

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