Auckland to Kerikeri
On the road again. Kerikeri is 250 km north of Auckland. Twenty km of good highway, 230km of goat track. Most of the goats are Aucklanders escaping the city for beach settlements where they can pretend they don’t live in Auckland. Think of the Aucklanders as a fungal disease slowly spreading across Northland with no cure.
On the Way
Warkworth has a river, three sets of traffic lights and a new McDonald’s.
Wellsford has a main street with enough traffic to create its own ozone hole and a surprising local enthusiasm for do it yourself surgery.
Whangarei
This is as big as it gets in the north. Whangarei has four lane roads, an actual CBD, a trendy riverside area with a clock museum and bad guys hanging out in the hood. Despite these attractions the goal is Kerikeri so Whangarei will have its time in the sun in a later blog.
Kerikeri
This is a small town with big attributes. It is a middle class european suburb plunked into struggle class brown Northland. It has the obligatory cafe/cinema, weekend farmers market, boutiques with proprietors who do it for fun not money and two supermarkets so upmarket they would fit into the trendiest Auckland suburb. In other words it is nice.
What do they do here? They mostly sell real estate. Kerikeri has more land sharks per resident than anyplace I’ve ever seen. In addition Kerikeri does history, horticulture, the best chocolate in the world and stacking rocks on top of each other.
Scenically there is a lovely river flowing through into an inlet, on the shore of which sit the oldest wooden and the oldest stone buildings in New Zealand. The buildings are interesting in a “wow these buildings are old” kind of way.
Luckily there is also a cafe and a restaurant. You will probably spend more time here than you will examining the providence of the old structures.
If you like living in a trendy upmarket suburb with a 250km commute to Auckland Kerikeri is for you.
I could live there.
The Return Trip
This is a repeat of the up journey but with a detour to:
Waipu – Why not!
This is a settlement of Scottishness rampant with representative symbols. It has a museum featuring Scotts stuff, highland-games, and many pictures of kilt people. It is nice and I understand why the people of Scotland packed up their bagpipes and came here.
Waipu – Auckland
Nothing of interest here….
The Urban Ockenden 