Heading north!

As announced, here comes the report about my trip to the north of New Zealand. Have fun!

Monday, October 24th

Stray-Trip, Volume 4 was the plan for me on Monday morning, because after the southern part of the North Island, I wanted to go high this time, so to the absolute north of New Zealand. The destination of the first day was Paihia. After a not very spectacular drive, where the only noteworthy event was that we saw an old Kauri tree, we first checked into the Pipipatch Base in the coastal town of Paihia before a group of nine of us headed to the Hararu Falls, another waterfall. The way there didn't have much to offer, as we were walking along the road the whole time. So we didn't have any great views or anything. When we finally arrived at the destination after 5 km, we were standing in front of a waterfall that looks similar to the Niagara Falls, wide, but much smaller. We didn't stay there long and then decided to take the longer, but much more beautiful path through the forest back, which was really worth seeing and varied in landscape. There were mangroves, swamps, and regular forest, and occasionally we saw birds - we even passed a tree with several birds nesting (unfortunately, I don't know what species they were called) - and of course viewpoints from which we could see the adjacent river and the neighboring forest areas. It was also nice and quiet on this path, so I really enjoyed being in the middle of nature. The only thing that wasn't so great was my feet, which started to hurt more and more ;) That's why I was glad that we were back at the hostel just before the barbecue after a total of 12.5 km and 4 hours of hiking. But the barbecue was a disappointment. We got a free drink, but could only get one plate of food (sausages, steak, potatoes, salads) and had to pay 12 NZD. I thought that was a bit too much. But hey, at least it tasted pretty good. After that, we had a little 'Olympic Games evening'. Each table was assigned a country - we were Australia - and then had to compete in various disciplines. The first one was a quiz about events at the Olympic Games, then there was a kind of speed beer pong (each team had to throw the ball into a cup as quickly as possible) and afterwards flip cup and arm wrestling, but only one team member did each of those, just like the last discipline, rhythmic sport gymnastics. We won silver in the quiz and arm wrestling, but still came last:/ Well, it was still fun. Later we organized our own beer pong tournament in the room: Frank and I against Nina, Sally, and Ashley. Both times it was tied 5:5 before Frank and I hit the last cup first and secured the victory. Let's see when I suffer my first defeat. The game is fun and not as difficult as you might think when you watch it.

Tuesday, October 25th

This day was planned as a day trip to Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of the country. We left early in the morning by bus, before we stopped in the Kauri Tree Forest. The weather was lousy, but the forest was beautiful. These trees are really extremely tall and thick. Then we went to Ninety Mile Beach, which is actually just under 90 km long. At first, we drove along the beach with the bus, after a few minutes we were allowed to get off and enjoy the view of the sea on one side and the dunes on the other side. By the way, the sun came out right on time for our visit. Afterwards, we continued with fun activities. It's called sandboarding and takes place on the dunes. Each of us, or rather everyone who wanted to participate, got a board first. Then we climbed up the dune one after the other, which was about 30 meters high, and slid down lying on the board, head first, downwards. Since it had rained before, the ground was particularly fast that day, so in the flat section that came after the dune, we slid another easy 15 meters, some even over 20. The most important thing about sandboarding is that you always have to keep your hands on the board. Otherwise, you will fly:D That means the board gets stuck and you are thrown forward. That happened to some people and it looked really wild in some cases, but since nothing happened, everyone could laugh about it. Only the clothing was of course wet, because there were puddles everywhere in the flat section. Fortunately, I stayed lying on the board in all four of my rides. I totally love sandboarding. It's kind of a mix between sliding and skeleton. It's definitely a lot of fun:) From the dune, we then went to the destination, the meeting of two seas (Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean), to the sacred place where the souls of the deceased go to Hawaiki: Cape Reinga. The landscape there is an absolute dream. There are numerous cliffs, beach, and the vast ocean. It was breathtaking to look down on the ocean from above. I used the hour we had for exploration to take numerous photos and take a walk to the lighthouse at the northern tip. But the lighthouse is rather small. It almost disappears in these huge cliffs;) Then there was the several-hour drive back to Paihia, where we made a short stop and stocked up on fish and chips, which tasted incredibly good. The landscape we could see during the drive was beautiful, but the seats were extremely uncomfortable. That's why we were all glad when we were back at the Base in the evening.

Wednesday, October 26th

After checking out, I didn't do much on my last day in the north. I went to the beach in Paihia and got two scoops of ice cream. I have to say that the amount I got for it is equivalent to about five scoops in Germany. So it was kind of like lunch for me :D While eating, I enjoyed the view at the beach, then wrote postcards and finally walked along the coast back to the hostel because we were going back to Auckland at 2:00 p.m., where we arrived in the evening. In Auckland, I went to the pub next to my hostel, where there was free pizza and some games where you could win some pretty good prizes. Some others from my Stray group were also there. Unfortunately, I didn't win anything. I didn't even participate in the limbo, in the square game I was eliminated after one minute. Someone blindfolded sat in the middle and the players had to stand in one of four corners. In each round, the person in the middle pointed to one of the corners and anyone standing in that corner was eliminated. That happened to me in round 2. In the last game, it was going really well for a long time. You had to dance to the music and then, when the music stopped, immediately sit down on the floor. The slowest one was then eliminated. There were probably 30 people participating and there were prizes for the top three. And I was so close to being one of them :/ Because I was eliminated in fourth place. So close to winning...well, someone has to take fourth place. But I have to say that the prizes for 2nd and 3rd place were nothing special. After I was eliminated, the top three had to perform a short dance and the audience had to decide who they liked best. I don't think I would have won the main prize if I had danced there;)

I will tell you about what I experienced in the following days, especially on the east coast, very soon.

See you soon,

Your Max