The Bay of Islands, Cape Reinga and Auckland

From Auckland I went North up the aptly named ‘Northland’ to Paihia and the bay of islands. On the way we made some great stops at a newly opened Maori replica village where we saw another version of the haka and learnt lots more about the Maori culture and how they lived before the European settlers arrived. After lunch we went to a bird sanctuary and met Sparky the one legged kiwi, which is the only kiwi in NZ that it’s legal to stroke. He was very cute!! Robert who runs the sanctuary takes Sparky all over NZ to teach children about Kiwi’s and how they can help in preserving them! When we got in Paihia we were our drivers experiment group and he took us fishing…turned out a bit stressful for him as we weren’t very good and kept losing our bait on the rocks! I however caught the biggest fish (which me and kat cooked up into a fish pie a few days later!) and I won the $50 bar tab…lovely!! The next day, slightly tired and hungover we went on our tour up to Cape Reinga, the very northern point of NZ. On the way we drove along 90 mile beach and stopped to do some dune surfing (pretty scary but very fun!) where you climb up the steep dunes and slide down on boogie boards to the bottom clinging on with only your feet as brakes!! From Cape Reinga you got some amazing views, especially when the sun was shining! On the way back to Paihia we stopped an ancient Kauri forest where they used to mine for gum years ago from the giant kauri trees. We also made a stop at a fish and chip shop to get (supposedly) the best fish and chips in New Zealand…they were pretty good and had a beautiful view over the water and the sunset. Exhausted after the trip it was early to bed that night!

For the last few days in Paihia I explored the beaches and took a slightly longer than expected walk to a waterfall through a mangrove forest. It was nice to chill in one place for a while with such beautiful scenery (and take advantage of their hot tub).

When we got back to Auckland I finally got to explore the ‘City of Sails’ and have wondered all over the CBD and the down by the waterfront. Yesterday afternoon I went up the Sky tower (the highest building in the Southern hemisphere) and watched the sun go down over Auckland which was beautiful. Today as it’s my last day in New Zealand (and civilisation for a bit!) I’m sorting a few bits out and chucking out as much as possible from my overflowing backpack! I’ve absolutely loved New Zealand though (as you probably can tell!) and I’d recommend it to anyone to come and visit. Next stop is the Cook Islands to spend 2 weeks lazing around on a beach in the sun (fingers crossed on the sun bit) before heading back over to the USA!

Only one month to go til I’m back home and very excited to see you all then!

Lots of Love

Ro

X x x x x x

Wellington, Raglan, Waitomo caves, Maori evening, Rotorua, Lake Taupo and National Park

My few days in Wellington were lovely and I really enjoyed wandering around the city. Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum was beyond doubt the best museum I’ve ever been to and you literally got lost in there for hours! I took a trip up on the Wellington cable car to the botanical gardens which also gave a great view of the city. The following day I walked around Cuba street with its quirky shops and cafes and the bucket fountain I’d heard so much about! In the afternoon we went on a Lord of the Rings tour as Wellington was the 1st place they used for filming and the production studio was based. It was very cool to see some of the places they used as sets (even if you really did have to use your imagination!) and recreate some of the scenes. Watching the boys pretend to be a black rider on his horse was very amusing!

The next day I embarked on the 12 hr bus trip up to Auckland before catching my bus to start the North island tour. Our 1st stop was Raglan on the west coast which was beautiful! We stayed right up in the rainforest with a view of the sea and spent the afternoon on the beach trying to avoid the sandflies. The following day we headed to the Waitomo caves, a huge network of caves under what looks like regular fields and hills. Most of our bus and I opted for the Tooma Tooma blackwater tubing where you combine climbing and crawling through the caves in some very sexy wetsuits and wellies with tubing through certain sections staring up at the glow worms that live on the roof of the cave. Great fun if a little claustrophobic at times!

Our stop that night was at Uncle Boy’s Marae, a traditional Maori house where we had a traditional Hangi meal and then watched children from the village performing traditional songs and the haka! We then got split in girls and boys and the girls learnt to dance with the poi (they look a bit like onions on strings!) and the boys learnt to do the haka. They definitely made it look easier than it was but we all gave it our best shot! The following day the bus stopped in Rotorua where we walked around the geothermal pools and dipped our feet in one of the swimming baths (holding our noses against the lovely smell!) On the way to Taupo we stopped to swim in a stream heated by the geothermal activity which was pretty toasty before walking to another huge waterfall. At Taupo we found out the weather would be too bad the next day to do the Tongariro crossing which was a huge shame as I’d heard it was amazing! It seems to be really 50/50 with people I’ve met whether they’ve been able to do it or not though and some people have come back 3 or 4 times before they’ve been able too! Because we then didn’t have to get up at 5am we went out to some of the local bars including an Irish bar with a very enthusiastic live band which was great fun!

The next day on the way into the national park we stopped in some more geothermal areas and our driver cooked us lunch of sausages and kumara (a bit like a sweet potato) in a hole in the ground which was definitely interesting! We were then determined to do a bit of walking so set off on a 2 hr walk in the pouring rain to a waterfall and all ended up getting entirely soaked!! Luckily at our lovely accommodation that night we had a hot tub so could warm up in that! It was back on the bus heading north the next day back up to Auckland.