Down

Today, the driving was all down, back down towards Auckland again.
We did manage to see a sunset last night, a golden, molten metal sort of sundown whereby the cloud was turned into a drip of hot furnace metal above the clear, shimmery grey water of the harbour. However, in being lifted up to take a good picture, I managed to whack my head on the roof which was unexpectedly hanging over the balcony viewing point. Doh. Now I have a lump on my head.
This morning, we left the campsite, waving goodbye to guitar man who has sat and played the guitar, constantly since we arrived yesterday apart from the 8 hour gap he took to sleep.
We drove round the hilly roads of Northland, marvelling how they went from windy and steep to impossibly straight and flat within seconds of each other.
We drove into the Kauri Forest first, the oldest habitat on New Zealand's shores. We stopped to trek in and gawk at Tane Mahuna, the Lord of the Forest. He was amazing, aweinspiring int he true sense of the word. You have never seen a tree this big. He was over 2000 years old, and in Maori legend is the reason the Earth exists, as it was his doing that pushed apart the Mother (Earth) and the Father (Sky) and so allowing people to come into being between them. His trunk was 13.5m circumference, 75m tall. Absolutely gigantic, especially in comparison with the other rainforest species. So large, you whispered in his presence.
We continued on through the thick rainforest, following the seemingly deserted road. Eventually, we broke out into sunlight again, the canopy no longer covering us in green light and bird calls.
We had a small lecture on Ancient Greek Theology in the car, as Alex asked about it and that fired off my blather mode. When we surfaced from the mug of ancient religious talk, we were several klicks further down the 'Coastal Highway' (still no coast to be seen! Lies!) and very hungry. We had lunch overlooking the entire valley and stayed there for a while feeling on top of the world. We passed back near the town of metal animals and then spent some time exploring down random roads. We found a lovely reserve that reminded me strongly of a lake I have visted in France a few times and we parke dup in the forest campsite for awhile, looking out over the lake and enjoying the surroundings.
Once we had peaced out, we continued onwards and eventually came to stop at a lookout for dinner. Here, we were hijacked by 10 varied and curious chickens, all beautiful, all highly interested in our car and us and all desperate to steal our food. They followed us about and made funny noises to each other, then started a rallying cry for reinforcements from the other side of the hill. We made dinner with the last of our vegetables (we have timed the finishing of food rather too well!) and made a run for it. The chickens all chased us as the car drew level with road again.
We continued on, looking for a campsite for the night. After looking for one that appears to have vanished from existence since the writing of our map, we turned tail and went in the opposite direction for a bit, managing to find one, nicely situated in a park of pohutukawa trees. We have yet to pay for this site, as the owner cannot get his card machine to work and so just waved us on through, so whether we have to do some heinous chore tomorrow to pay him back or not, we are not sure. In the meantime, our car now has a view of baby rabbits frolicking under the trees, so it should be a peaceful night.