Kai Iwi Lakes Walk in Dargaville – Day 362

Today we are going to explore some pristine lakes on the Kauri Coast. You Ok, Laura? Also Laura is a coffee table today. What is this joke? It’s not even funny.

This morning we leaving Hokianga Harbour toward the Kai Iwi Lakes and we do the same mistake that we did last week we are following the GPS and of course we get lost.

We are in the middle of friggin nowhere on the worst type of road ever. We’re trying to go to the Kai Iwi Lakes?

Wrong way! Ah!

The GPS tells everyone to come this way – it’s a dead end.

Damn, Google Maps is so unreliable in New Zealand if you want to make your way to the Kai Iwi Lakes just follow the signs or use a traditional paper map.

the Kai Iwi Lakes otherwise known as the Taharoa Domain is found just outside of Dargaville along the Kauri Coast in the Northland region of the North Island so that’s very specific directions for you. For the locals, the Kai Iwi Lakes is a place to come and do recreational watersports like windsurfing, and kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding but that’s all if you have your own equipment if you don’t have you’re own equipment like us, there are lots of different walks to do around the area so that’s exactly what we’re doing.

The walk that we decide to do is around a small lake called Lake Kai Iwi and it takes about 30-45 minutes to do the whole loop walk going right around the lake. However, the walk will take a little bit longer if you’re easily distracted like us by the beautiful clarity of the lake where you can actually see the fish in the water and there are lots of wildlife as well to bee seen along the forest around the lake. We see loads of birds and loads of really pretty flowers.

The lake is nestled in thick New Zealand native bush most of the bush that you can see right now are kanunka and manuka trees. The manuka trees are really famous here in New Zealand cos they are the ones that have the flowers that the bees use to create manuka honey. This is one of the number one New Zealand exports.

This walk is super easy. The track is super wide very well signposted to be fair there is absolutely no high or down. It’s literally all flat all the way – plus we get to see heaps of birds like fantails which are hunting all the little flies which are flying around.

After spending some time checking out the New Zealand native birds we decide to turn around and make our way toward the car park there are actually quite a lot of things to do around the Kai Iwi Lakes, there are some walks like you can see right now, some biking, some fishing, some camping, some watersports and you can actually rent gears if you don’t have yours at the local holiday park.

The Kai Iwi Lake comprise for three main lakes with the largest one being Lake Taharoa which is also the place where you can do the longest walk in the area which is about 2 hours.

And that’s the lake that is right before our eyes right now, if you guys are not into walking or just want to relax there is a massive beach where you can sit in and relax we take the time to check out the view and we do just that because that’s lunch time.

The beach at Lake Taharoa has beautiful soft white sand which makes you really want to do some beachy activities but when we go to the local holiday park to get an ice cream, we leave little bit disappointed.

Why are you not eating ice cream?

So we wanted to have an ice cream cos it’s beachy but turns out that the holiday park here doesn’t sell ice creams or at least the guy…

BOO!

the guy is out there somewhere on this catamaran so we have to substitute ice cream for apples.

It’s healthy, it’s tasty, it’s better for us, it makes us grumpy.

Although they call Northland the Winterless North it looks like the sun has gone and the rain is coming and they say in New Zealand that there are four seasons in a day and that’s a good reason to for us to leave as the rain starts to pour down and we move onto our next destination.

We got to enjoy the beach on the lake, we got to enjoy the hike around another lake, but now it’s time to find our accommodation for tonight.

We’re now driving to the Kauri Coast Top 10 Holiday Park where we’re going to be staying for the evening in the Kauri Coast.

I can’t believe that New Zealand’s Biggest Gap Year is almost finished! Oh my God! It was epic!

Laura, can we go travel again?

One day, Kiwi, one day.

I want to go on the road again.

Can we just rest for a little bit? Before we start our next trip?

No!

I feel like I’ve aged 10 years in just one year.