Another week gone. Sherilyn & I have spent the day arranging our travel plans for the next 2 weeks and picking up those last few odds and ends we need from the city (like a water bottle and new jeans). We've decided to rent a car as it is actually our cheapest option. The other idea was to get a flexible bus pass and then for me to fly from one of the towns we were at to Christchurch after only a week or so. This way we get more time and the ability to side track some and see the really beautiful parts of this country. In case you have a map, our plan is this...

Depart Monday
1 night Waitomo - glow worm caves and Hobbit village
2 nights Rotorua - thermal spas
2 nights Taupo - skydiving!
1 night Napier - art deco & wine tasting
2 nights Wellington (this should bring us to Tues am when we catch the 2.5 hr ferry to the South Island)
2 nights Nelson/Malborough Sounds - Abel Tasman park
2 nights Kaikora - whale watching
Christchurch on Saturday, April 17 where I will stay and look for work.

But enough of that, back to Bay of Islands. Tuesday morning I hopped on a bus at 7:20 am and headed to Cape Reinga, the northern tip of the North Island. It was a day tour bus, geared at backpackers. We stopped at a fruit market in the morning (cheap mandarins as we were near Kerikeri, a big citrus and kiwi growing area) and at a forest to see more kauri trees. These are some of the largest known trees in the world, some having grown to 15+ metres in diameter. The ones we saw in this forest though were not as large as the one we saw in the Coromandel.

After that we kept trucking (well, bussing) to 90 Mile Beach which is the western side of the very northern tip on the Tasman Sea. It's actually only 56 miles but is named 90 because it's the path the farmers used to take to take their cows to market. Cows can only walk about 30 miles a day and it used to take 3 days to get them to the town, so it was named 90 Mile Beach. It's all very hard sand so 4 wheel drive vehicles can drive on it. Others can as well (and one did follow us the whole way) but it's not recommended because they can easily get stuck in the streams and quicksand. They estimate about 1 car a month gets written off through there. We were on the beach for about 1 hour before driving at 100km/hr the whole time. Cool. We were there right at low tide and had probably 40 metres on either side from the water and grass.

We took a right at the quicksand river and drove through the river (river in winter/spring, stream now) to the dunes. When I think dunes I think hills. Not even hills, piles. These were mountains of sand. I felt like Lawrence of Arabia (except I forgot my camel). They were huge. HUGE. H-U-G-E, HUUUUUUGE. Really, really big. Massive. Extraordinarily large. Gigantic. Tres grand. Anway, I was impressed. So, how do you truly appreciate sand dunes? You climb to the top of the largest one (ow!) and you go down it on a boogie board, screaming in fear and excitement. Unbelievably fun. Remember though, your feet are your brakes and steering. It is not recommended to try the hand-in-the-sand stopping technique as it results in the undesired salt-in-every-orfice outcome. That I can say from first hand experience (first "hand" haha). Regardless, it was unbelievably fun to board down a ginormous sand dune.

Then it was lunch time where we stopped in a beautiful little bay and went for a quick swim (I was the only girl brave enough, proving my Canadiana). Over to Cape Reinga to see the meeting of the 2 oceans, which is surprising visible. There is somewhat of a line where they are meeting and also the Tasman Sea is green and the Pacific is blue, showing a clear divide where the 2 mix. This cape is a sacred place where no food, drink, camping or pets are allowed. It is where the Maoris believe their spirits go when they die, stopping there on the way to Hawaiiki (volcanic islands above Hawaii that are now buried but where the Maori people and many Polynesians originate from) for their final resting place.

They way home we stopped at a Kauri museum to see what the wood is used for now. The colour of the wood is a medium to dark brown and used to make anything tourists will buy, including a $35,000 sofa. Inside the building is a staircase built/carved inside one the the Kauri trunks. It is thought to be the world's only internal staircase. A stop for some of NZ's top fish & chips and we called it a day - 11 hours and 500km later. Worth the money!

Wednesday I went out to Waitangi to see the treaty grounds where this country was started. It had the house of the first British resident of NZ (Busby, brought here in 1832). Built in the mid-1830's, his is one of the oldest homes in NZ. Oldest. Now that's a young country. There was a Maori cultural House on the grounds which serve as the main gathering and ceremonial spot for Maori communities (this one was built in 1940 for the centennial celebrations) and a Maori war canoe that is elaborately carved and seats 80 paddlers & 50+ passengers. I can canoe, canoe?

I went to Russell after that to see what NZ's oldest town (established by Christian missionaries from Aus in 1814) was all about. Not much really... Well, I guess there's lovely hikes and bush walks nearby but I preferred to wander and laze by the water. And feed some really friendly ducks. These guys were more human friendly than Roxanne's ducks. The nights were all low key, just chatting with fellow backpackers at the hostel (meet the coolest people when travelling) and reading my book. The Power of One by Bryce Courtney is one of the most beautiful, wonderful books. it's about a boy growing up in South Africa and is just a recommended read for everyone. (Thanks Soooooz! I'm about 1/3 through Tandia now).

And so we meet again.

Back in the ole city for a few nights after a GLORIOUS 4 days in the Bay of Islands. As for no one hearing from me for the week - it was between $6-9 per hour for internet in Pahia (the town I was staying in) vs $2 in Auckland, so you all got pushed aside. And no, I don't feel bad!

So on a nicer note, let me begin describing my past week... Saturday morning we all (the Islander count is now up to 6) got up at 6:30 (on Saturday! You'd think Drill sergeant Ramsay was here at that disgusting hour) and caught a bus out to Onehunga (which we just barely made), a 30 min ride out of the city, to pick up a rental van. And so the adventures began. We were to report to the brewery (Lion Brewery, makers of Steinlager, one of the top international lagers, or so they claim. It's all propaganda) at 9:15 am for a 9:30 tour. The tour was pretty cool (no Guinness, but I'll take it) with a cool guide. After about 2 hours of touring the facilities and seeing a backup on the production line (they produce 12,000 bottles a day, with bottles being much preferred over cans in NZ) it was into the bar to taste test. And the silly man let us have a free for all... We made them earn their $12 admission... my personal favourite moment being when the guide was showing the rest of the group something fascinating in the corner of the room so the Sellar sisters & I wisely chose to mind the bar in their absence... It was only noon and things were shaping up well...

After that we grabbed our beach stuff and headed out to Piha (taking the scenic route). Piha is a gorgeous black sand beach just west of the city. The sand is made from volcanic ash, hence the colour. The water was cccccccccold so I didn't last long. Somehow Rob & Scott managed to stay in for hours, trying desperately to figure out surfing. They tried to use the "it's not as easy as it looks excuse". Whatever guys, not buying it. We stopped for a fancy supper in celebration of Scott's old age (Pizza Hut buffet) and were homeward bound with the wimps all in bed by 10pm! I had a little packing to do...

8 am Sunday (another early weekend morning) and I was on a bus to Pihia (pronounced pie-he-a, not the beach, that was Piha, pee-ha), the tourist town on the Bay of Islands. It's beautiful. Amazing. Sunday I did a low key, plan my week day and wandered the beaches. Monday I went on an all-day cruise of the bay where we saw some of the more spectacular, tropical-paradise islands, went dolphin watching and saw the Hole in the Rock. We only saw 2 dolphins and had the chance to go swimming with them. I debated and the crew said that if we found more in the afternoon then we would have time to put on wetsuits and go swimming again. Watching the people in the water shiver and realizing they couldn't see where the dolphins were, I chose the smarter path of watching from the deck. It was cool to see how they would go around and underneath the swimmers but never too close. The they would come back under the boat and show off for the people on board. Thems smart fish.

After that we went through the Hole in the Rock. This is like a giant (500ft) Elephant rock and the boat (small cruise ship) goes right through the hole (between the trunk and the body). It's way bigger than it looks but I couldn't even try to estimate how big it is. The whole boat was in it for probably 2 mins. It's not actually referred to as elephant rock, that's just what I call it. I'm silly like that. After that we had an hour stop over on one of these tropical islands that was so remote and beautiful. All week I kept thinking how unspoiled and natural everything looked until I realized that there were tourists swarming it all.

My typing skills are severely limited due to exhaustion right now, stay tuned tomorrow for Cape Reinga, Waitangi and Russell.