And so we leave Auckland again to head up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands for a trip to the top of New Zealand. We had an early start as per usual and lucky for me a lovely Dutch girl by the name of Jessica was now doing the same journey as I was which meant that I was likely to have a bit of consistent companionship which is always good. We left Auckland in the peeing rain which lucky for us had cleared by the time that we got up to Paihia by lunchtime. After checking into our hostels and grabbing a quick bite to eat a bunch of us headed off to the Excitor to go and check out the Hole in the Rock which again was more amazing work of Mother Nature that has eroded a big hole in a rock in the middle of the sea. Pretty impressive actually & the trip there and back amongst the islands was just stunning.
Had to get up nice and early to head up to Cape Reinga at the top of New Zealand to drive up the 90 mile beach (which in fact when eventually measured correctly was not actually 90 miles), go sand boarding down the dunes, have a dip in the sea (which I might add was FREEZING) I got as far as my feet & could go no further & walk up to the Cape Reinga lighthouse to view the very top of New Zealand which is a super sacred area to the Maori's as this was the area where the first Maori landed legend has it many moons ago. On the way back we stopped off to view the magnificent ancient Kauri trees as well as a stop off at the Kaurie shop which had the most beautiful furniture and ornaments.
On our third and last day in Paihia Jessica & I had to wait until midday for the persistent rain to give up so that we could walk up to the lookout point to get stunning views of the Bay of Islands. We met up with one of the new magic bus drivers who tagged along back as we headed down for the lookout pointing useful little bits about the trees and plants that we walked past as well as keeping us entertained when he headed up the beach to check out the Maori totems. We had wanted to go to walk up to the treaty grounds but unfortunately the rain kinda decided that we should rather not. We then headed back to the hostel to play cards for a couple of hours. I was over the moon to discover that Jessica likes cards as much as I do which is such a great way to spend time in hostels in the evenings and it is cheap as chips :-)
Back to Auckland the following day with a stop off to see the great Tane Mahuta that is an awesome ancient Kauri tree who has graced this planet with its presence for 1500 - 2000 years. Needless to say it is HUUUUUGEEEEE. Stunning.
