ravelling north from Auckland on State Highway 1, the first place of interest is Kawau Island, just off the coast from Warkworth.

Last century this was the home of Governor George Grey, who introduced to the island several species of exotic animals, including kookaburras, monkeys, zebra and five species of wallaby. In quite an interesting twist, one of these, the parma wallaby, survived on Kawau after it had seemingly disappeared in its homeland, Australia, and some were re-exported there - a popular New Zealand immigrant. Ferries to Mansion House, the former home of Governor Grey, leave regularly from Sandspit, and once a day a mail run calls into the numerous small bays in Bon Accord Harbour. However, check the newspaper for departure times and details.

North-east of Warkworth, three kilometres from Leigh, a metal road will bring you to Goat Island Marine Reserve. When this reserve was first proposed there was much grumbling from local fishermen but the reserve soon proved its worth by allowing snapper, crayfish and other species to attain breeding size and repopulate other areas. Snorkelling is very easy and at low tide it is possible to see a great variety of marine life while in shallow water. The fish are unusually tame and can be hand fed. Wear gloves, though, as their teeth are sharp.

Goat Island itself has resident colonies of red-billed gulls and whitefronted tems. Also here are the burrows of about 20 pair of flesh-footed shearwaters. As on Tiritiri Matangi island, the forest is in the process of regenerating after a period as grassland. At present it is mainly manuka but pohutukawa, mapou, houpara and mahoe are all emerging and it is expected that eventually Goat Island will be covered with the coastal forest once common in this area.

From Goat Island one looks north to Pakiri Beach and the magnificent views of the coastline stretching from the Whangarei Heads down to Rangitoto Island. The rare fairy tem breeds in the sandhills behind Pakiri Beach and at Mangawhai the harbour is host to many seabirds. Flocks of diving petrels and gannets can be seen following shoals of fish, appearing to cartwheel along as the leading birds dive and then come up and join the tail of the flock.

From Goat Island the road back to State Highway 1, through Pakiri and Whangaripo requires a certain amount of care. The farms are pretty and some of the views, such as those of geese grazing along the creek banks, are charming. This road rejoins State Highway 1 at Wellsford and from here north the road is almost entirely inland.

From Kaiwaka, 23 kilometres north of Wellsford, a road leads back to the coast at Mangawhai, and from there the main road to Waipu crosses the Brynderwyn Hills, from the top of which there is a good lookout over the islands in Bream Bay. The most noticeable of these islands are the Hen and Chickens and it was here, on Hen (Taranga) Island, that the North Island saddleback (tieke) survived after being exterminated in the rest of the country - a classic example of a predator-free island being the salvation of a species. Since 1964 tieke have been moved from here to Little Barrier, Red Mercury, Middle Chicken, Cuvier, Mokoia, Tiritiri Matangi, Lady Alice and Kapiti Islands and in all of these places, except Kapiti where rats were a problem, it has done remarkably well. Two further species have also been re-located here to Taranga from other islands - the little spotted kiwi from Kapiti and stitchbird from Little Barrier.