NZ - Auckland and Northland

We arrived into Auckland at 3.35am which wasn't convenient! We got the shuttle to our hostel and camped out on the sofas until a more sociable hour. The first thing we did was get a subway, then we walked into the center and did some research into car hire. Eventually we got one booked so we wandered around a few shops (not that we have any money to buy anything) and had some dumplings in an asian food court we found! After a trek to find a supermarket we got the bus back home, cooked and had a ridiculously early night.
Auckland Sky Tower:
The next morning we got the bus to the Auckland War Memorial Museum which is huge. The most interesting part was the Maori room but I wasn't really in a museum mood. We had to have a coffee in the museum before walking through the park into town to go to the Asian food court for lunch. I had Thai soup which was yum! We faffed for the rest of the afternoon before heading back to the hostel. I went for a run round the small park next door which had the steepest hill in it ever. No more running for a while!
Auckland Museum:The Auckland skyline by night:
The next day we picked the car up and drove northwards. We arrived at Paihia, which is the town for the Bay of Islands on the East coast. It was raining which was a shame so we really couldn't decide what to do with ourselves. We ended up staying the night and watching movies and playing cards which some English lads. We did go and see Haruru Falls...they weren't worth the effort(!):Rainbow over the bay:
The next morning was beautiful blue skies but we still couldn't decide what to do. There is so much on offer but it's all so expensive, it's so different to South America I think we were both still finding our feet. We went for a short walk up the hill to a viewpoint over the bay. Having not been persuaded to part with any cash for a boat trip we got back in the car and drove to the west coast to see the Kauri trees.
Bolognaise sandwiches for lunch!
Views from a lookout on our journey:The Kauri trees in Waipoua forest, tallest one, Tane Mahuta, 52m high:
The four sisters: Te Matua Ngahere, the widest one, 5m diameter:
View over the forest:After the forests we really couldn't be bothered to drive all the way up to Kaitaia to go to Cape Reiga so instead we completed the loop and went to Tutukaka, near Whangarei. I was tired, hungry and cross by the time we got there but we went to book a boat tour to the Poor Knights Islands for the next day. Again the tour was really expenisve, 50quid for snorkelling and I just couldn't part with the money, so we stayed the night in a bizzare place with bizarre people and drove on the next day.
Random waterfall on our travels:We drove down south and back through Auckland where we stoped to see the view from Mount Eden, biggest of the 42ish volcanoes in the Auckland area.
View from acros Harbour bridge:View from Mt. Eden including the crater:The first few days in NZ have definitely been a bit of a culture shock but it's so exciting to be in such a beautiful country!!