Early start this morning, I thought I was going to be the only one up at such a crazy time but apparently not. Fortunately breakfast things were out so was able to get a bowl of cereal before heading out.
90 Mile Beach
At the place where I’m due to meet my coach I find another 6 people waiting, for what appears to be the same tip but with different operators. Now I had a choice on who I booked the tour through, the owner of the hostel recommended that I go with Awesome NZ (the name kinda speaks for itself I’m thinking). She said that it was more a backpackers type of thing which would be more fun for me rather than going with another operator who tend to be more geared for older people. It was at this point that I was thinking this might actually be more me, a more relaxed experience. However, against my initial thoughts on the matter I booked on the backpackers trip, after all apart from the car, the laptop and the wheely bag I was backpacking wasn’t I?!
Part of the tour was going to a place where you can sandboard, now for those of you who had the joy of my last blog in South America you’ll know that having done it there after trekking for 4 hours with a very short touchy feely Peruvian man I had no intention of doing it again. However, you probably all know also that I never like to pass up an opportunity, no matter how crazy.
My bus arrived almost on time and I was the only one being picked up there, I jumped on the coach to find I was the last one to be picked up and that (at first glance) all the other passengers were under 25. On closer inspection it turned out there were a couple of older people onboard, but perhaps they had just got on the wrong bus in the first place.
Our first stop was an ancient Kauri forest, where we had all of 5 mins to run around it and take pics. One of my detours on the way up to the Bay of Islands took me to a Kauri forest so I had had my intake of large trees fortunately. Next stop the bakery for lunch items. If you went on the coach for older people you got to stop off at a restaurant for lunch, on my bus we got to buy lunch and have it on the beach, a far nicer option in my opinion, that is, however, until you saw the lunch options in the bakery. I went for what I can only describe as a an extremely squashed flat and shoved into a container egg sandwich, at the time I thought have I gone for the right thing, by the time lunch time comes its gonna be even worse but when lunch did finally come I think my choice was the far better one compared to many others.
Next stop ninety mile beach, although it’s not ninety miles (its kms here anyway) and technically it’s not really a beach! But it did have the sea lapping at its shore and had sand just like a real beach!
It takes an hour to drive up the beach and just as we were approaching the end our driver turned off up a river (!) and started actually driving up the river, not on a road on the side of the river and not a bridge over the river but actually up a river. So we have a 90 mile beach which is neither 90 miles nor a beach and now we have rivers that are roads, next was the sand dunes, what lay in store there?
So back to my last sand dunning experience I had said never again, I also knew though that when I got there I would want to do it and experience it all. So there it was that I found myself hiking to the top of the sand dune (just 10 mins this time luckily) with body board in hand and preparing to hurl myself off the top, it’s at this point I should tell you that this was all in a denim mini skirt (!) and a vest top (!).
So anyway off I went and it was amazing! So much fun and so different when you haven’t trekked for hours to get there. This was the very sand dune that my mum bravely boarded down 5 years ago so I thought if she can, then so can I. It was great fun.
Sandboarding
Our next stop was the end of the world or Cape Rengina, the most northern point of New Zealand and where the Tasman and the Pacific seas meet. Our driver was very informative throughout the trip keeping us going with some fantastic Maori stories and folk lores, with one being that the Maoris believe that Cape Regina is where spirits leaving and arrive in New Zealand. It is a beautiful spot and you can really see where the two seas meet, there is a distinct line between the rough Tasman sea and the calm Pacific, a really lovely calm spot.
Cape Reinga
On heading back to Paihia I and a girl I met on the trip headed over to Russel across the bay to see what it was like and have a bit to eat. Its a lot smaller than Paihia but very nice, just a handful of little shops and restaurants. So we treated ourselves to a lovely Thais meal before heading back.
The lighthouse at Cape Reinga and me!
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