Stuck

Today is February 24, 2011, 6:30 am and we are waiting for the bus that will take us deep into the north of the North Island towards Paihia... unfortunately, German punctuality is not known here, instead the bus drivers, who drive at high speed on bumpy roads, always make up for lost time quickly... always amusing haha

Day 1Paihia, I was actually expecting beautiful white beaches, but due to a storm a few days earlier, everything was full of algae, shells, and branches that were carried away from the surrounding trees. Chris and I quickly rented kayaks and paddled around on the sea for about 1.5 hours with rough waves.

 

Since we didn't have much time planned in Paihia, we wanted to make the most of it and booked a tour that would take us to all the attractions that should be seen in the far north. Since there was nothing on the program for the first evening, we decided to hike to the Hurura Falls, which were advertised to us as the second Niagara Falls in the I-Site. You can admire the result below. 

After the exhausting hike, cooking was rather basic. Noodles with gravy, but in the company of Anna and Michaela from Sweden, whom we had met on the bus.
Day 2Once again, getting up at 6:30, but we were already used to it by now, to catch the bus to Cape Reinga, which fortunately left directly in front of our hostel. Our bus driver Craig, a true Kiwi, who was funny but also quite annoying because he constantly told some nonsense and we were all still pretty tired. After about 1.5 hours, we reached our first destination, the Aupouri Forest with its huge old rainforest trees. 

We quickly continued to Ninety Mile Beach, which is actually only 64 miles long. Fortunately, we were traveling in a 4WD bus, otherwise we would have ended up like the poor Japanese who got stuck on the way and could only continue their journey with our help.

Sand dune boarding, with a nice long run-up from an 85-meter dune, and the subsequent drive to Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of New Zealand where the Tasman Sea and the South Pacific Ocean meet, were the highlights of the tour. Well, fish & chips to finish off was also not bad.