Conquering New Zealand; The battle for Northland

Hi Folks
Whew, who would have thought that. New Zealand is the most difficult longboarding I have experienced on this entire skateawhile trip. By far. I have managed to skate 275km from Cape Reinga to Dargaville, took me five days of skating, up to nine hours a day to reach the daily 50+km. Hard work I tell you. The street surface is unmatched rough, up to a point where you have to push for going down mild downhills. Steep downhills on the other hand get very very icy with my wheels, and I have a destroied pant, gloves and a impressively colourfull bruise now. (Yes, I fell again). Oh and did I mention constant headwind and walking up steep uphills for half of the day.
To make it short it is slow and painful. In fact it is so skate unfriendly that I have decided to abandon the North, and hitchhiked the remaining distance into Auckland (around 225km). So there I am right now, struggling with my decision and feeling bad for already having a gap in my skating through New Zealand. Well, unexpected things happen while traveling.
I will still try to cover some distance further South though, and hike the Tongariro Nature Park crossing (also known as Mount Doom).
But there is positive to report aswell. The New Zealanders are still one of the most welcoming and hospitable people I have met so far. And the landscape is still incredible. I have seen the biggest, no most humongous tree in my life, at a sacred place for Maori, they call him the father of life. Unimaginably beautiful. I had one of the most amazing freeride experiences in my life after the tree, riding down a perfectly steep, windy road with not so bad street surface. Took me about 1h continuously. Simply awesome. The next day I was invited by a local farmer to spend the night at their house, and went spear hunting for flounders with him in the evening.
And in general I can start to feel a travel saturation setting in, now that I have reached the other end of the planet I have started to think about after traveling. I have yet to reach a conclusion and will continue for a while, but I at least feel satisfied with what I have accoplished so far, even though I have covered less distance than initially thought.
We'll see where I end up.
Cheers