Mum, we are alive!!
Sorry about not blogging yesterday, by the time we got back to the hostel the global gossip (cheap internet) was closed and there was no way we were paying $5 just to blog!
Yesterday we went on a day trip to Cape Reigna, right up the top of NZ. our first stop was to a forest where we could see big trees... not too exciting! On the way we stopped at some giant sand dunes and went sandboarding. it was a lot of fun, but the climb up was pretty hard... towards the top it was so steep that it felt like you were going nowhere- the sand just kept sliding back down. Because of the terrible climb I only managed to go down the dunes twice before we had to leave and cath gave up after the first go! Then we arrived at a gorgeous little beach surrounded by mountains. We were allowed 45 minutes here to have a swim- the water was freezing! cath chose to stay on the bus and sleep.
After the beach, we got to Cape Reigna, where you can see the line where the Tasman sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. There was also a really nice view as it is up on a big headland.
We then started heading home. For the first part of the trip home we travelled along 90 mile beach (which is actually only 60 miles long, when the kiwis found this out they didn't change the name because they didn't want to be outdone by Australia with our 80 mile beach). When we got to the end of the beach, we found that the other bus from the company we were travelling with had become stuck in the sand. 20 minutes later our driver had used the bus to pull the other bus out and we were on our way to the ancient kauri museum, which is basically a souvenir shop selling things made from kauri (Nz native tree) which had been buried under mud for at least 45000 years. Everything there was pretty nice, but way out of our budget- a chunk of scrap wood cost at least $30! or a long chair for $25000!
Next we went to Mangonui, which apparrently has the best "fush and chups" in NZ and possibly the world according to the bus driver... the fish was ok but i'm pretty sure the chips were just frozen packet ones :( the ones we had on the lakefront in Queenstown were a lot better! We ate the chips on the bus as we were late from the other bus being bogged and arrived home a little while later. We had a spa and had an early night :)
This morning we got up early again for our last day on the magic bus. not too many exciting stops today, we stopped to look at another big tree (this one was actually quite impressive), and had a couple of stops at expensive cafes. we got bacck into Auckland at about 4, went shopping for food and are now on the net :)
Thats about all, i think i've typed enough!
Suz
xo
