We had breakfast and walked along the waterfront in Dargaville before driving east to Whangarei on our way back to Auckland.  The land was rolling hills with dairy farms and an occasional corn field.  South of Whangarei, we got off Route 1 to drive several miles down a gravel road to Waipu Gorge and hiked down a trail to Piroa Falls. 

The hiking made us hungry and we stopped for lunch in Waipu Cove before continuing back to Auckland.  Waipu Cove has a white sand beach fringed with palms and subtropical vegetation.  Families picnic on the beach and surfers hang out waiting for the perfect wave.  It was very different from the craggy black sand beach less than 70 miles away on the west side of the island.  The mountains down the center cause the island's two sides to have very different weather and landscapes.

After we got back to Auckland and turned in the car, we walked along Queen Street looking at jewelry.  Well, I looked at jewelry, my husband just walked along and hoped for the best.  I was looking for a carved stone or shell necklace and was doing pre-shopping to price them out.  Most of them were pretty expensive so we walked along Princess Quay, just people-watching before we had wine and cheese back at the hotel.

Cove Cafe is across the road from Waipu Cove and has either outside or inside seating. The food is typically New Zealand which means it has fresh vegetables in the salads and lots of lamb on the menu. It also has great ice cream. I had a beer and my first lamb burger here. I know lamb burger doesn't sound like a great idea but I always have to try the unusual things and this was one of the best results of my trials. A lamb burger uses ground lamb (the New Zealand version is much lighter in taste than the US version) naturally. It was topped with a fried egg and had carrots, tomatoes, lettuce and beets under it. Absolutely wonderful! The ice cream I got was orange with chocolate chips - also wonderful. However next time I'll pass on the paua (abalone) fritter; it was bland and not as good as the conch fritters in Florida. New Zealand brews lots of interesting beer so we had lunch, sat in the sun, watched the surfers and sipped a beer. Lunch doesn't get much better than that.