The day after my last blog post we got up early and caught the bus up to Paihia, the main tourist town in the Bay of Islands. The bus left Auckland at 7:15am and arrived in Paihia at about 12pm which allowed us to make the most of the day. After a quick trip to the supermarket we decided to go on a boat trip as this is recommended as the best way of seeing the islands. The boat was called the Excitor and I don't think any of us expected it to be quite as scary as it was! I'm not sure what kind of speeds we were reaching but the boat was taking off at some points and it was definitely a white-knuckle ride! It was also made more fun because of the jackets, overtrousers and dodgy sunglasses that we were provided with. After holding on for dear life, we stopped to see the 'hole in the rock' and were then whizzed off to another island which belongs to the owner of Sky TV.
The following morning was another early start as Adam, Lizzie, Kimberley and I went on a day trip up to Cape Reinga which is regarded as the most northern point of New Zealand (although technically it's not). We caught the bus from Paihia at 7:15am and made our first stop at a forest filled with Kauri trees which are the second biggest trees in the world - they were huge!
After hopping back on the bus we soon found ourselves driving up 90 Mile Beach (apparently it's more like 64 miles but it got it's name before the days of any measuring equipment!) which is an official road in New Zealand - very odd! We made a couple of stops along the beach, the second one being my favourite - we got to see a car that had become stranded a few weeks ago and had sunk into the sand.
After cruising up the beach a bit further we arrived at the giant sand dunes where we went sandboarding. The dunes were huge and it was a real effort climbing up them with a bodyboard under your arms so I just had the two rides. My first go was pretty successful and great fun but on my second ride I managed to do a bit of a spin and ended up with sand all over my face which I didn't enjoy too much! Still, it was a great experience and something that I may not get the opportunity to do again.
We all jumped back on to the bus, along with lots of sand, and headed for Cape Reinga next. It was really beautiful up there and we got to see the point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean - the bus driver told us that the white water was 'confused water' which didn't really know which ocean it belonged to - quite a strange thing to see. We were also told that it was possible to see the curvature of the earth from Cape Reinga but I'm not too sure whether I could actually see it myself, hmmm.
On the way back we stopped off for fish 'n' chips, or fush 'n' chups as it's pronounced over in New Zealand, which were delicious! We arrived back in Paihia at about 7pm and had a few drinks in the hostel bar in the evening but I didn't stay out too long as the early mornings were really taking their toll on my energy levels.
The next day we didn't have to catch the bus back to Auckland until 4pm so we jumped on a ferry and visited a small town called Russell which is home to both the oldest pub and the oldest church in New Zealand, although neither of them actually looked that old. After stopping off for a hot chocolate whilst waiting for the rain to pass, we headed for Long Beach and chilled there for half an hour or so. We hopped back on the ferry back to Paihia, had some lunch and then caught the bus to Auckland which got us back for about 8pm. After checking in to the hostel, we got ready and headed out for a few drinks but again tiredness took over and I didn't last long! That was last night, and today has been spent mainly on the internet swapping photos with the others because the three guys are flying to Fiji tomorrow afternoon. We're heading out for a chinese tonight to say our farewells and then it'll just be the girls left. Anyway, I better leave it there as I should probably start getting ready soon!
I've added more photos at http://nottinghamac.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2139062&l=cda2f&id=199707669 - enjoy!
Until next time...
xxx
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