Tuesday 7 Dec

Woke up tired as, but I figured I could sleep on the bus, wrong! The guide kept talking and talking! I he stopped it was only for abou 5 mins. Long enough to doze off only to be awakened again. Phooey! =( We stopped at the Puketi Kauri (cody) forest and had a walk about the amazing kauri trees. Sotpped at a bakery for brekky and to get lunch, card still wasn’t working but people were really nice and shared with me. We drove by Awanui, “big river” as a joke he told us to get our cameras ready. After that I was waiting to see the “little river.” Lol. Then we had a nice drive up to Cape Reinga, the departing place of the Maori spirits. This is one of five places in the world where you can see two oceans meet! Sweet as bro! Stefan, Kate and I climbed to the top of the hill to see the view a bit better. The Tasman Sea to the left (west) and the Pacific Ocean to the right (east). It was the coolest thing ever! We then walked down to the lighthouse and had a squint. We culdn’t stay too long because the bus had other places to take us. We had lunch at this cute park/beach down the road. Then we headed to the Great Gold Sand Dunes for a bit of sand boarding! Rob the driver had to take the bus through the quick sand stream. It was cool because the bus was specially designed to drive on the beach and through the stream. Aluminium frame instead of steel, big engne at the front, and a special chasse at the back. We parked next to the dunes and all got out. We started looking at the smaller dunes where there were already people, but Rob said no, no we are going down that one, pointing to the 85 metre dune. Sweet as bro! It was a rough climb up, but the view at the top was breathtaking! Stefan and I swapped places taking photos of each other going down. It was the coolest ride ever! The boards are just like boogy boards and you go flying down the dunes on your tummy! I forgot to keep my mouth closed! Crunchy! After everyone had a go, including Rob, we took the bus down 90 Mile Beach. Its not actually 90 miles. The story is that the farmers took their sheep and cattle down the beach to get them to the trade fair. It took them 3 days and so they reckoned they did 30 miles a day. So the name came about. The beach is 90 ks though ironically enough. We drove about 70k of it. It is considered a national highway! 100kph And we took pics of the fish eye rock. Another Maori story is that NZ is a big fish with hook. After we left the beach we headed to the Ancient Kauri Kingdom where they sell items made from the Kauri tree that had fallen 1000s of years ago and dug up. No Kauri trees are ever cut down anymore. After we checked that out we headed down to Mangonui (big shark) for the best fish and chips I have ever had! (snapper) Then we headed back to Paihia. That was one of the best day trips ever! Lol. Tried the ATM again to no avail. =( So made some rice and beans for dinner and watched Notting Hill with everyone there. I was completely nackered, so I grabbed my book and went to bed a bit after that.