This morning I get up just before sunset. I still wake up sometimes during the night, partly because of the jet lag and partly because I go to bed so early, but I manage to sleep longer these days.

It’s very peaceful here in the morning and I decide to go for a run at the beach, something I’ve always wanted to do. The run to the other side of the bay and back is only about three kilometers, but still a very nice way to wake up. I continue with my daily workout and then it’s time for a shower. There are only cold showers outside here, so that’s challenging, but also very nice. I can tell you, I’m fully awake now. I make myself some breakfast and enjoy the view.

For me as a energetic/driven person, it’s hard to wind down. Somewhere in my mind there are all the things I still need to do, work for my business that needs to be done, places I want to visit these days, books I want to read. But this morning while I’m watching the beautiful scenery I realize that I can also decide to do nothing today. I could stay in this bay the whole day and all would be well. Even though I probably continue my journey today, it’s actually a nice relaxing thought not to have to do anything. I make myself a cup of coffee and sit down in the camping chair that I got from the rental company.

When I’ve finished my coffee it starts to rain and I see that as my que to start driving again. I drive all the way north to Cape Reinga. It’s a real long road, but fortunately there is almost no one there, so it’s nice to drive and I can keep the speed up. In about two hours I reach the lighthouse in the North. It’s a beautiful place. Some signs next to the walking path tell that the Māori believed that this is the place where their spirits left earth when they died. Whether that’s true or not, it’s absolutely a special place. Beautiful cliffs rise up from the ocean and you can see the coast line for many miles. I walk to the lighthouse and then hike some of the hills next to the cliffs. It’s a bright sunshiny day and a lot warmer than the last couple of days. I stay at the north point for quite some time and eat some lunch there before I hit the road again.

The way back seems even longer and keep driving the rest of the day until it’s dark. On the way back I make a quick stop at Waipoua Forest where you can find trees of 2000 years old. The trees are huge and pretty impressive. After visiting the forest the sun goes down and I stop at a camping nearby the beach. It’s not such a beautiful place as the last two days, but they have a big kitchen where I can charge my laptop and bake some pancakes for dinner.

I hope to get to some more civilized area again tomorrow, because I have some work to catch up on. That’s the challenge of working for yourself. It gives a lot of freedom, but sometimes even on vacation you need to do some work. The time difference makes it a bit easier to let go of work, because it’s almost impossible to make business calls, so everything needs to go via email and internet here in the North is quite unreliable. The fact that I can enjoy this adventure, but also desire for a normal workday (read creating some websites and helping people from a coffee place) is a nice confirmation that I love being an entrepreneur.

Visiting the most north point of New Zealand was one of the points on my list that I really wanted to visit and it was absolutely beautiful. From now on I’ll go more south. I think one or two more weeks on the North Island, before I go to the South Island.