Top of New Zealand

I finally got out of the hostel after another week of sitting around getting better. I hopped on a bus and headed north to Paihia. It’s a small little resort town 4 hours north of Auckland. Included in my bus ride was a ride on a high speed boat to the “Hole in the Rock”, sadly there was no wind and no waves so it was just a ride out to the island. After the ride I went in search of some supper and found some fish & chips. The fish was Dory; I was not all that impressed!

The next morning I went on a tour up to cape Reinga. We left at 7:10am from the hostel (I’m sure I was still asleep). The guide (spike) was a school teacher as well as the guide, he also likes to talk allot. The first stop of the morning was to see the Kauri trees. These tress are native to New Zealand and quite large, they also get very old (4000 years). We then stopped at a bakery for our morning tea. Then it was on to the sand dunes to do some sand boarding. We climbed up the steepest one we could find and launched ourselves down. It is allot like tobogganing but without the cold and clothes. It is much easier to climb up the dune without snow boots and ski pants, though you do wend up with sand everywhere! No one even got hurt; our driver did tell us how he managed to break 2 ribs 8 months ago on the same dune though.

We then made our way to the very top of New Zealand – Cape Reinga. As we got there the clouds started to roll in so we got a little wet. After looking out to both the Tasman and Pacific oceans we headed down to 90 mile beach. The beach is a registered highway and used to be the only way up to the top of the island. While on the beach we stopped to pick pipi’s (shell fish). I’m not sure why but some people like to eat snot! After collecting a bucket full we headed back down the coast stopping at a store where they harvest ancient Kauri trees from the swamps and turn them into overpriced furniture and objects. They have a massive staircase which was carved out of the centre of one of these trees. We then got back into the bus and headed back to Paihia stopping to pickup our fish & chips. I don’t know what kind of fish but it was really good. Cheap too only $6.00 well worth it!

Today it’s been raining on and off. I went for a walk down the beach and around town. Tomorrow it’s back to Auckland then off to Queenstown. I wonder what I will find for supper tonight.