Christmas in Northland

We drive across the Harbour Bridge and up the Northern motorway stopping at the Honey Centre near Warkworth. We continue northwards and stop for lunch in Whangarei. At the Native Bird Recovery Centre we meet the quirky talking tuis and see kiwis close up.Then we continue to Kawakawa to check out the famous Hundertwasser toilet block that has put the town on the map. 

We arrive at our hotel in the mid afternoon. The sparkling blue waters of this maritime park are dotted with islands - it's a paradise for beach lovers and sailors. There’s time for a dip in the pool before we dine in the hotel.

We start Christmas morning with a leisurely breakfast at your hotel. We sightsee around the Waitangi region and this afternoon at Paihia wharf step on board a large comfortable catamaran to enjoy a 2.5 hour dolphin-watching cruise out through the islands to Cape Brett and the famous Hole in the Rock.

There's time to wander Russell's waterfront before sitting down to a buffet Christmas dinner at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel. The first licensed hotel in New Zealand has a rollicking past back to 1827 when the whalers and sealers were in the Bay. We return by coach and vehicular ferry to Opua and your hotel.

The Bay of Islands is known as the cradle of New Zealand. On the historic trail today we visit the Waitangi Treaty House where local Maori signed the treaty with Queen Victoria’s representatives in 1840. Then we drive to Kerikeri, a thriving town known for its orchards and arts and crafts, there is time to enjoy all this town has to offer.

We call into the Stone Store and adjacent Kemp House built in 1820, New Zealand’s oldest European building. We drive through the Northland countryside to Waimate Mission House and arrive back at the Copthorne in the late afternoon.

We drive further northwards up the East Coast to Mangonui and popular summer holiday spots - Coopers Beach and Cable Bay. We then head across the island to Awanui and Kaitaia.

On the West Coast Ahipara and Shipwreck Bay on Ninety Mile Beach are favourite destinations for surfers. In the late afternoon we reach Kohukohu where we catch the vehicular ferry across the Hokianga Harbour to Rawene. Our hotel is right on the harbour’s edge at Omapere. We dine in the hotel this evening.

After a leisurley breakfast at Copthorne Omapere we drive to the lookout over The Hokianga Harbour. South of Omapere we enter the beautiful Waipoua Forest guarded over by Tane Mahuta, the God of the Forest and the largest kauri. Tane Mahuta is just a short, flat walk through beautiful native bush.  

Continuing to Matakohe we visit the Kauri Museum then lunch nearby. We continue south down the highway to the small farming towns of Kaiwaka, Wellsford and Warkwortth. We return to Auckland in the late afternoon.