Paihia and the Bay of Islands

Kia Ora!

My last two nights in Auckland were fairly uneventful, spent a lot of time trying to re-organise my life and having early nights to combat my raging jetlag. Fun stuff. Left Auckland ridiculously early (7.10am, ouch) but this did give me the advantage of getting to Paihia at around mid-day, which was lovely. The kiwiexperience bus wasn't as interesting as I had hoped, but we got a lot of general information about the areas we drove through. By the end of my time here I will probably be on par with a New Zealand encyclopedia.

Been in the Bay of Islands for two days now and loving it. Day one was mostly spent just chilling out on the beach. Did some swimming which was sweet as - the water is warm here. Lovely. The beach here is very picture-postcard which is amazing. I sit there for hours and don't get bored. (Sad ey?)

Yesterday I got up ridiculously early (again) and made my way up to Cape Reinga with Awesome NZ (an affiliate of Kiwiexperience as far as I understand). The driver was a typical Maori that said he had lived in Paihia all his life, so we got to see things from his point of view and hear stories that he had been brought up with.

First stop was a cafe for breakfast. Tea and apples. Yum.

Second stop was a short forest walk with lots of old Kauri trees. Rob (our driver-guide) said that these Kauri trees were around 500-600 years old. They were massive - attempted a tree hug and couldn't even get my arms half way round.

After that we spent a while driving and got on the 90 mile beach, which is a state highway here. Drove most of the way along it (on the beach, near the waves). It. Was. Phenomenal. The views were amazing and it was just generally lovely. Up and round a little river was the biggest sand-dunes i've ever seen. It was an absolute trek getting up there (and my legs are definitely suffering this morning) but it was awesome to board down them. Even though I fell off half way down and rolled around (got completely coated in a layer of sand. Not fun).

Then on was a little beach in the middle of no-where where we stopped for lunch. Even more beautiful than the one here. But no swimming costume so I didn't go in sadly.

Finally we made our way up to Cape Reinga, which again was phenomenal. A little coastal walk down with lots of Maori history and beliefs as it is sacred ground for the Maori tribes. Beautiful.

During the drive home we stopped off at a Kauri tree carving place - they took old Kauri trees that had already fallen and carved them into things. Beautiful again, but expensive. Aaaand the last stop was a 'fush and chup' shop that served the best fish and chips ever. Seriously.

And that's all I have to report right now guys. Hope you all are well wherever you are.

Peace -x-