It’s quite far out of the way, but it feels like a place you just have to visit. At the time, we had already left Auckland and moved to Te Puke, but the nagging regret was too much, so we finally decided to make the trip. It took several days of driving to loop all the way back up there. We didn’t try the giant sand dunes nearby because the weather that day was simply too brutal. We spent most of our time hiding from the sun; otherwise, there are many remote spots around there worth exploring.