New Zealand is truly a foot-fetishist's wet dream. The locals, particularly in more rural areas, display an aversion to footwear of any kind. Doing as the Romans do and wandering around barefoot in town feels bizarre at first, but after a while it's actually quite nice. And you can tell a lot about someone by their feet - mostly whether or not they regularly walk barefoot; many Kiwis have shockingly collapsed arches and super-wide feet thanks to childhoods (and adulthoods) spent 'soles to the soil', as it were. I quietly revel in the informality implicit in this let-it-all-hang-out lifestyle statement. Stones can be a bit painful sometimes, though.

In a last Kiwi backpacker tourism fling, I decided to go up to Northland before I fly down to spend Christmas & New Year on the South Island with mates. To this end, I got a lift into Auckland with Kerry (and Conor was there to keep us company) on Saturday morning. Kerry has kindly let me leave some of my luggage in his office, which I will pick up before I fly on Thursday. To keep it interesting, I decided not to use InterCity buses this time. Instead, I'm on a Northlander Loop Pass, which gives me access to buses on both coasts of Northland. I bet you really wanted to know that!

Northland is the part of New Zealand which lies to the north of Auckland. It is really rather empty of people and for that reason it is perceived to be quite a small place, but in fact it's almost as far from Auckland to Cape Reinga, at the northern tip of Northland, as it is to Wellington, which lies at the southernmost extremity of the North Island. Well, give or take a hundred miles.

There is a significant Maori population in this region, perhaps because it is here that Maori colonisation of New Zealand is believed to have begun some 1000 years ago with the arrival of the first Polynesian canoe captained by Kupe. It is also the area that saw the arrival of the first British settlers in the early 19th century. Today, it is a fertile agricultural region and the home of New Zealand's kumara crop.

The weather is supposed to be sub-tropical here, but to be honest it's been more sub-antarctic recently. Lots of rain and not much warmth, except during the occasional sunny spell, when you do feel for a few seconds how strong the sun can get around here. Perhaps things will brighten up for Christmas.

The trip up to Paihia was uneventful, if you don't count the periodic rainstorms. My arrival in Paihia however, though dry, coincided with a most dramatic event: one of the many tourist boats plying the waters of the Bay of Islands area had run aground after engine failure, and 60 passengers were being helicoptered to safety over my head! This maritime incident comes hot on the heels of the crash of a scenic flight also in the Bay of Islands a week ago, in which a major Swiss business leader was killed. So, as I commented drily to my bus driver the next day, we only had a road accident to go for the full hat trick.

That evening, after a spot of helicopter watching and a walk on the beach, I had a bite to eat and then called Livi in the UK to wish her a happy sixth birthday. It was weird to think that she would be having today a party that would closely resemble Ella's party of yesterday on the North Shore.

The weather was kind to me on Sunday. I had decided not to go diving but instead to take a bus tour up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost accessible point of the North Island. The tour was a full day, and was really really really good.

Our first stop was the Puketi Kauri Forest, a protected forest containing - as the name suggests - kauri trees. These are Australasia's largest trees, growing up to 50m tall and 10m wide. They're weird because once they reach a certain height they stop growing upwards and just get wider & wider. The branches with leaves are all pretty near the top of the tree, with just a massive trunk below. They were all cut down, first by the Maori and later (and in industrial quantities) by Europeans, who valued the straight and water-resistant timber for shipbuilding and construction. Less than 1% of the original kauri forest cover remains. Unluckily for us, kauri take a century to reach maturity, and can grow to over 2000 years old. So we won't be seeing many more of them in a hurry.

Next stop was Ninety Mile Beach, which is about 60 miles long (oh well). It is amazing; so straight (there's only one corner in its whole length) and flat (depending on tides, it can be 100m wide) and firm (our bus had no difficulty driving along it at speed). We drove onto the beach at Waipapakauri at its southern end. Half-way up we came across the carcass of a whale, which was pretty unpleasant. I had visions of that Kiwi film The Whale Rider, but thankfully this individual didn't turn out to be the harbinger of any bad news. Yet.

At the northern end of Ninety Mile Beach there are some spectacular sand dunes. These we body-boarded down repeatedly, which was most amusing! But I tell you, the sand was so fine - and the wind so strong - that not a part of me didn't end up with a fine coating of brown dust. My skin under my watch strap was particularly gross.

Our next stop was at a small beach called Tapotupotu Bay. We had our lunch here, because Cape Reinga is tapu and therefore no eating or drinking is allowed there. While eating our sandwiches, we watched some surfers out surfing with some dolphins. It was cute the way the dolphins would surf under the same waves as the surfers were surfing on. You could see them directly under the surfboards! I got chatting with a Brazilian guy called Marcelo, who is finishing off his schooling here in NZ.

Cape Reinga is tapu for Maori because it is where they believe their souls depart the earth after their death. What the passing souls make of the bloody great lighthouse that's been stuck there is anyone's guess. The meeting point of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean, there is a fair bit of wave action here, and it's definitely a windy spot. Ruggedly beautiful - just like myself!

We had the obligatory "why don't you buy something crap?" stop next, at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom factory. This shop specialises in making all sorts of things out of kauri wood that has been dug out from under bogs, there being a bit of a shortage of the fresh stuff. Apparently there was a massive asteroid impact or something about 40,000 years ago which knocked vast swathes of kauri forest flat. I don't quite understand how the wood comes to be preserved, but these trees can be dug out and used just like new, and the Ancient Kauri Factory has some delightful furnishings and some terrible tat (I mean, just who would want an ancient kauri wine stopper?) for sale. Needless to say, my wallet lost no girth on that particular visit!

We drove past Doubtless Bay (so called because when it was first sighted from the sea by Europeans it was described as "doubtless a bay") and had a stop in a small fishing village called Mangonui next, for 'fush and chups' as the locals say. I have to be frank and say the chips weren't really up to scratch. Which was lucky for the seagulls that encircled us, because I was quite happy to feed them my scraps. I even managed to get one to take a chip from my fingers!

Our final stop was at a wonderful organic fruit orchard & shop on the main road near Whangaroa. The English owners have a bit of a thing going where they give passengers on Awesome Adventures buses free fruit, in the hope they might be tempted to buy some to take away. I was blown away by how tasty the fruit was, and promptly bought a sackload of sweet grapefruit (they're soooo yummy!). It was cheap as! I think I paid 50p for five fruit. I also bought some crunchy sweet red apples. Anyway, my vitamin C intake has been up in the last few days as a result, which can only be good.

Back in Paihia, I went to Café Jerusalem, an Israeli / Middle Eastern eatery, for dinner. The menu was full of tempting things, but I finally settled on a mixed vegetarian plate of falafel and levivot. The falafel were quite simply the best I have ever tasted in my whole life. Really. And the levivot (little patties of kumara, pumpkin and stuff) were gorgeous too. I was blown away.

On Monday an amazing thing happened: the sun came out! Yes, folks, it's true; it doesn't always rain in Auckland. I have to admit, I had trouble believning my eyes, but over the course of the day the intensity of cloud cover diminished, and ever larger patches of blue sky collected overhead. Finally, it was actually sunny enough to lie outside reading my book without worrying too much about the windchill factor. This day will live long in my memory!

Other than that, it was a quiet day. I walked to the nearest shops, over the other side of the circular inlet onto which Sharon & Phil's house gives which is being colonised by mangrove. I had a wander around this area, which is multicultural and reminds me of bits of London. There were Indian restaurants, Chinese grocers, Maori coffee shops and all sorts of other small-town premises.

That evening I watched "Touching the Void" with Phil & Sharon. This is a film about two British climbers in Peru who had a bloody nightmare and by rights ought to have died several times over. Somehow they survived - human endurance is astounding - adn this docudrama is really quite gripping.

Tuesday was another quiet one. The sun was actually out long enough for me to go and lie on the veranda, but to be honest it was so windy I had to come inside again after ten minutes. So much for the balmy sub-tropical summer I was hoping for!

But things looked up later on that day, when I went to visit my cousin Alf & his wife Maureen over in Howick. Expecting just a coffee, I was pressed to stay for dinner - oh, go on then, twist my arm! - which Maureen cooked despite her ill state of health. She is a very independent-minded lady, and reminds me of my own mother in the way she won't accept the limitations her illness put on her.

Later that evening, Gayle & Kevin came home (just in time for dinner in fact) and we had a lovely evening sitting drinking wine & chatting.

The next day, after I enjoyed a lazy tea & toast breakfast with Alf & Maureen, Alf dropped me off back at Sharon & Phil's. But I didn't hang around there; I went into Auckland's Downtown area to do a spot of sightseeing. I caught the bus from Panmure to Downtown and saw lots of rain splashing against my window, interspersed with the odd sunny patch where I could actually make out the outline of the buildings on either side of me.

I had a divine lunch at a Japanese ramen noodle bar hidden behind the bus station. Wow! So big! And so cheap too! And so tasty! Then I popped in on Melissa at Queen Street Backpackers to enquire about tickets to Northland. It was bizarre seeing her in a (slightly) more responsible environment, having spent a more intoxicated time with her at the weekend.

Then I hopped on a bus and visited Auckland's aquarium, which was okay but I wasn't actually that fussed. Lots of tanks were being renovated, which didn't help. Still, there were some good sharks & stuff.

Later that afternoon I went to visit Lynley, Kerry, Ella, Conor & Logan over on the North Shore. I caught the ferry from Downtown to Devonport and then several buses up to Mairangi Bay. Reasonably scenic, but the weather still wasn't playing ball. It was really really lovely to be back at the Fordes' house! And the persistent rain made me feel even more at home, because that's just how the weather had been when I was staying here before. I can't help thinking of my nephews & nieces when I'm playing with Lyn & Kerry's kids.

The following morning, we had a little family outing to Conor's playgroup for their Christmas concert. The kindergarten, the most well-funded and well-run in the area, is run by one of New Zealand's more evangelical churches, and there was a lot of evangelist carry-on, but mostly it was about dozens of littluns up on stage singing and dancing. Cute!

Thursday afternoon saw me dashing across the whole of Greater Auckland in a public transport frenzy. Not content with travelling the bus route I already knew from yesterday, I went a different way and took different buses. With the result that I ended up going right round the houses! Still, if I hadn't taken that long bus detour I wouldn't have seen some of the more Maori areas of town, because they're tucked away out of the central districts.

I have to say that several hours of public transport ground my spirit down, especially when I got caught in the home-time traffic and my bus hobbled forward in stop-start traffic for over half an hour. Thankfully Lynley pressed a glass of sauvignon blanc into my hand the minute I put my head round their kitchen door, and the world seemed a better place once more.

Thursday was Ella's birthday, but her birthday party was to take place on Friday. Lyn & I took the kids on a last-minute shopping trip for party plates in the morning, which we rounded off with lunch at Long Bay in a lovely little café.

I dashed off to Sharon & Phil's in Lyn's car to pick up all my belongings and got back with the party in full swing - or should I say in full shriek! Ella had her six best friends from school there, and the seven of them had quite a cumulatively piercing way of making themselves heard. Conor, the only boy, did his best to match them, but frankly he was out-shouted by a long chalk.

Kerry, Lynley & I were monitoring the kids variously in the living room, the play room, and the garden where (between rain showers) the kids were loving throwing themselves on the big trampoline. The three of us all commented later on how pronounced the psychological interplay of the girls seemed to us as we observed them at play. It was like watching a miniature society expressing itself, creating leaders, alliances, exclusions, renegotiations and other phenomena that I thought I'd left behind in the world of work!

When at last it was time for the girls to go home, I think the adults were more exhausted than the kids! We watched a bit of telly, grazed on leftovers from the party (including a rather stunning bread-and-butter pudding that I threw together from the cut-off crusts of the kids' sandwiches; I was most pleased with myself, considering I didn't even know the recipe, let alone use one!) and nattered but soon retired to our respective beds.