New Zealand North Island

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Note: Before going any further with this blog, I must let everyone know that we are no where near Christchurch and the earthquake. We are on the north island and perfectly safe. So please don’t worry about us.

New Zealand

Feb 18.. Auckland

Can hardly believe we are finally here. Any of you who know me will know that New Zealand has always been one of my target destinations. In fact, this whole trip started with my talking about one day visiting this country…and we are finally here.
What do we do on our first day? We spend over 3 hours getting through airports and another 3 in the air. By the time we get to our hostel it is time to find food and sleep. We will spend 2 nights here so we can spend a day figuring out where to next.

Feb 19 Well, our next move is planned. We are heading to Paihia for a few days and will be touring New Zealand by a hop-on-hop-off bus. It should be almost as convenient as a car and a lot cheaper. With that planned, we headed out to explore Auckland. Spent some time wandering around the bay area and then we hit the Sky City Tower. At 60 stories high it gives some spectacular 180 degree views of the surrounding area. And no, we did not participate in either the sky walk or the sky jump - we will leave those adventures to others. For those not familiar with them, the walk is on a metre and a half wide ledge that, at 51 stories, circles the outside of the viewing deck . The jump is a controlled bungee drop from the same distance. We watched three young women do the jump. The second and third were smiling - the first had a look of pure terror.
From there we wandered up to a park and discovered the preparations for Chinese New Years. The trees were hung with Chinese lanterns and scattered around the park were other beautiful lanterns in the shapes of dragons, people, story character, and such. After supper we returned to the park and again wandered about. This time all those lanterns were lit, performances were happening, and what seemed like thousands of people were milling about. Made for a nice end to the day.

Feb 20, 21 Bay of Islands, Paihia

Paihia is a small tourist community that is the launching area for anyone heading for a cruise around the Bay of Islands. We have planned on 4 days here in a self contained apartment attached to our hostel. The main idea is to give us some very down days. So the first day started with packing our backpacks for about a km through Auckland to the bus depot. Then an easy ride here and a pleasant surprise when we saw our accommodations. Nice. Spent the rest of the day exploring the area and grocery shopping. Not having a car sent us on a good 4km round trek to get the groceries.

Day 2 was a sleep in/ get organized for out next move morning. Then we walked to the ferry terminal and hopped on the passenger ferry across the bay to Russell. Russell was the first capital of NZ and is now a cute little tourist trap. It was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

Feb 22 One Awesome Day - still in the Bay of Islands

This morning we were up by 6:15am so we could be ready for our tour pick up at 7:20. We are headed for a day long ‘adventure tour’ to Cape Reinga at the northern end of the north island. Part of this tour is a drive along the Ninety Mile Beach which Zabots and Ruehlens told us was pretty cool - we thought- yeah, but we have done this at home on the Charlottes so no big deal. We were wrong…but let me back up.
After getting on the specially built beach bus, we started north, stopping to pick up several more tour members. We then stopped at an Ancient Kauri Forest where we walked amongst the massive trees. Then it was a coffee stop at a bakery so everyone could ensure they had a lunch with them.
By the time we got to the entrance to the Ninety Mile Beach, we were a good half hour later than scheduled. This doesn’t sound like much, but the tides do not wait for anyone. We were the last bus of the day because the tide was coming in and by the time we started out, there was not a lot of hard beach left, so our driver/guide, Rod boogied down the beach at a pretty good speed (speed limit on the beach is 100km). All the while the tide was rapidly shrinking so Rod told us there would be no stops on the beach as previously planned. All was still going well, with the waves crashing up against the side of the bus, when we arrived at a point where the water had already reached a rocky point that we had get around. Rod sat there watching the waves carefully - a number of different expressions passed over his face as he decided the best course of action. We were too far up the beach return to our starting point before the beach was gone, so after waiting for a moment when the waves retreated, Rod made a dash to get us around the rocky point. That is when disaster hit. A large wave crashed into the bus driving it against the rocks causing a lot of shaking and jarring of everyone on board, bringing our day pack flying off the overhead rack. We got around the point, but with a damaged bus. It was listing heavily to the right side so Rod thought it was a flat tire. Because the hard beach was now almost completely gone, he did not want to stop to check it so we limped down the beach, as fast as the bus could handle it’s injury.
We drove down the beach like this until we reached the river bed that led to the sand dunes we were headed for. It was here we discovered that the tire was not flat, the damage was much more extensive. Rod said it was probably the air bags so he and a driver from another bus blocked it up with pieces of wood. This did level out the bus. While the bus was being repaired the rest of us took boogie boards and climbed to the top of the very large sand dunes. After that long climb, there was only one way down. Laying stomach down on these boards, head first like on a sleigh, we flew down the hill at top speed. It looked so easy...just lay there and hang on. Well, maybe for some, like Darrel, that is how it works…but when you’re me you can be sure something will go wrong. After a high speed slide down the sand dune I must have hit the soft stuff (my excuse anyways) which brought my board to an instant stop but left me flying though the air, only to hit the ground in a spectacular tumble and roll. The only thing hurt was my pride.
By now the bus was ready so we headed out and drove up to Cape Reinga. This is where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean collide, much like when we were at Augusta in Australia. By now the damage to the bus was very evident and it was obvious that another bus would have to be sent up from Paihia. Rather than sit at the Cape waiting for the new bus, 7 of us agreed to ride about an hour down the road on another tour bus so our bus could make that part of the trip more easily. Yes, we were ballast. Of course, we got dropped off about 30 minutes before our bus arrived so had time to jump into the ocean. All that sand from the sand dunes still didn’t wash off.
The new bus from Paihia arrived about the same time as our damaged one did. The rest of the trip was pretty normal, stopping for fish and chips and then arriving at our hostel around 7. One awesome day.

Now we are watching the news coverage of the earthquake in Christchurch

I say again, we are both safe.

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Photos

Damaged Bus
Sitting at quite a list

Sand Dune
Proof that I survived the ride.

Sky Tower
From the 51st floor

Auckland
from tower

Russell
Across the bay from Paihia

The rock
The rock that caused all the bus troubles