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
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