Got another early wake up call this morning as the bus to Cape Reinga departed at 7.10am in front of the hostel. Now I must say about this hostel first that it's so much nicer than the one in Auckaland as instead of being one big multi-storey building, our 'rooms' here are actually like little cabins. So there's shower and toilet in here, instead of going out the hall to find one, it's just so much nicer this way. And there's two seperate rooms with 4 beds in each, at least this second night here, I'm alone in the room, yey :D Ok, back to the bus...
Our first stop was at Puketi Kauri forest, where we went for a nice 5 minute walk around the forest to check out these huge Kauri trees. Then we drove on to this small village called Taipa, where we stopped to have our morning coffees at a local bakery and also grabbed some lunch from there to take with us. Then we head out to the 90 mile beach. It's actually just 65miles long, but it was named buy some farmers who just estimated the distance of the beach. They never bothered to change the name once they found out the correct number, in kilometres it's over 90 anyways so kind of right after they changed in to metric system :D Ride along the beach was pretty cool, sometimes we hit the water too so it was kind of surreal to be driving IN the ocean :) The bus we were on was especially build to do that beach drive so it was no ordinary city bus.
After getting of from the 90 mile beach we got to a place called Te Paki where the Giant sand dunes and quick sand stream is. We actually drove on the quick sand stream and were lucky not to get stuck and sink in to it. No not lucky, just with a good driver who know we'd be fine as long as we didn't make a stop while on the quick sand :) So this is the place where we got off again and took out these small boards and head out up on the dune in order to surf it down :) That walk up there was really hard and I had to stop several times to catch my breath again. That's why I only came down once as I couldn't face the coming up part again :D It was really cool I must say, it was over really quickly, but so much fun. You had to lay on the board on your belly facing the direction you were heading, so down. We all had sand absolutely everywhere afterwards. I was digging it out of my ears, all over my face and I had some sand in my hair too. But it was worth it.
After sandboarding we head out on this little beach where we had our lunch. Some of the guys went swimming, but I didn't go, the waves were coming down pretty hard so I would have had problems out there. After lunch we drove up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost place in New Zealand. We had the opportunity to plan a tree there (had to donate small amount of money to do that, about 10eur) which I did. I picked the most beautiful spot I could find up there and I planted my little tree in memory of my friend Heini who we lost in August 2009. My little tree is named Cosprosma Repens and I got the gps coordinates for it, so I can find it with Google Earth and see via satellite on how it's growing, pretty neat right :)) I can show you guys when I get home where exactly my little tree is. I also like the fact that I've now left something behind in New Zealand, something that will keep on growing well after I've left the place :)
After that we walked down to the lighthouse and saw the spot where the two oceand meet, the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean. You could actually see the white waves there coming from two different directions.
And before I forget, I wanted to also tell you that Cape Reinga is very spiritual place for Maori people. It's the most sacred place in the country. This is the spot where they believe their spirits will come to move on after their bodies have passed away. Their spirit will travel here after one year after their death and take one last journey back to be with their ancestors. The spot where the two oceans meet is their passing way to the other side. Our tour guide, who was Maori, played this wooden whistle when we were about to leave the place (they play it when they're leaving from somewhere, they play it in the funerals for example) in honour of his mom who passed away few years ago to let her know he's close to her and will follow her to the other side one day too. Was hard not to cry...
After Cape Reinga we head back out to 90 mile beach as the tide was still out and that was faster way out of there than the other route. We had a quick stop at this place where they make furniture and all these other lovely carved things (like wooden jewellery and statues and such) from Kauri trees. Not the ones standing in the forest as you're not allowed to cut those down, but they dig up the trees that have been sinken in to the ground after a massive tsunami brought them down like hundreds of years ago or something like that. After that we went to have fish and chips at this lovely place in yet another small town called Mangonui.The BEST fish and chips I've ever had. This place is famous of it's fish and chips and mainly because the fish they serve is always fresh. Not more than a day old. Soooooooo yammy! This probably ruined all the other fish and chips for me :D Well maybe not, I just love them... :)
And here we go then, we head back to Paihia and arrived here around 6pm. Day well spend on a bus with a brilliant driver who told us all the lovely stories about Maori people and a lot about New Zealand history too. Was well worth to spend that extra (about) 40eur on this day trip :))) Pictures are already on facebook so please do have a look, I always like reading the comments you left on my pictures :)))
All good, tomorrow is another day here in Paihia, I'll let you know again what I've been up to ;) Good night for now and see ya! <3
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