I watched a delightful film at the Sydney Film Festival last week called The Strength of Water. It’s about two Maori kids growing up in remote Northland.

It’s wonderful what can be done with non-professional actors, especially children. In this film the film-makers really brought out the best in them and the landscape they inhabited.

It brings to mind all the strikingly beautiful places I visited last October on my journey around Northland, where the film was shot, particularly Hokianga and the West Auckland black sand beaches. To illustrate, here are my two favourite shots from the trip:

At the head of Hokianga Harbour.

Driftwood on KareKare Beach, west of Auckland.