Our first sight of ocean for a few days stops us in our tracks as we head further north. We are climbing and climbing twisting roads when suddenly Hokianga Harbour comes into view hundreds of feet below - and views across to wild and aquamarine Tasman Sea sees campervan make screeching halt for photocall. Can't stop long. We've a ferry to catch across harbour - a 15-minute journey - and then it's on to Ahipara, a tiny beach town which sits at the southern end of Ninety-Mile Beach. Nearby is superlative surfing beach backed by huge dunes called Shipwreck Bay, with some of the glassiest left-handers on the planet. Hey, we who hang out at Langland and Llangennith know our waves!
Next day, it's a trip to Ninety-Mile Beach. We skip the van on locals advice and take a coach trip to Cape Reinga, the furthest point north in NZ. Looking out from the lonely windswept lighthouse at the point where The Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet gives us an other-worldy feeling (sorry, but Land's End and The Lizard will never seem quite the same anymore).
Waves have been known to reach up to 10m high here on stormy days. Thankfully for our visit the weather is kind - but there is no escaping the sheer majesty of this place. At the very bottom of the cape is an 800-year-old pohutukawa tree, spiritually significant for Maoris as the place where souls depart from this life into the next.
Blown away by Cape Reinga - not literally, thankfully - it's time to get back on the old bus. On to Ninety-Mile Beach (and on it we mean). First, though, some dune tobogganing. Our coach takes us along a riverbed (the secret is not to stop or you will get stuck in the sand - no fun when the Tasman is coming in). Ahead are massive sand dunes - the climb up them once does for John (one toboggan down is enough). Chris, in fairness, tackles the summit three times and has some thrilling rides down dunes, though she returns to coach looking as if she has spent a week in the Sahara Desert. Empty those shoes, please.
Now for an epic return journey. Having taken first stage by road, it's back along the beach - 50-odd kilometres of it to our campsite. Yes, this beach is actually a designated highway. Dunes to the left of us, Tasman Sea to the right. Breathtakingly beautiful, but surreal also.
Luckily our coach driver knows what he is doing, which is more than can be said for some who have lost vehicles to the ocean. We saw a few cars which had been buried, just the tips of their roofs showing beneath the sand - sunken cars, not ships on this wildest of coasts.
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