Blogs from Ninety Mile Beach, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

December 24, 2007 Bus tour to 90 Mile Beach from Paihia Our tour bus came at 7:10 this morning to pick us up for an 11 hour tour of sights in the Northland, including 90 Mile Beach. Dave was our driver and was a bit of a grump until he put his tour guide headset on, flipped his switch and became Dave, the chatty tour guide. I got about every third word when making no effort and every other word when concentrating really hard. The accents are not impossible, but you do need to listen to each and “ivry” word. Our first stop was the Puketi Kauri Forest. Kauri are beautiful, majestic trees, enormous in height and girth. The trunks shoot straight up and maintain a constant diameter all the way up until the foliage pops ... read more

This was one of the main timber felling and exporting areas 170 years ago, but now its a spectacular harbour, with not too many people about. There is lots of evidence of its history, and it was fun looking round, and imagining how it used to be. I loved it here, every twist in the harbour gives yet another spectacular view, and the hostels were brilliant. In the 1950's, a wild dolphin became very friendly, and the "town"of Opononi (about as big as Llangyniew) became famous as people flocked to play sea football with him. He was called Opo and we saw a video made then, of him and the kids, and crowds of visitors. ... read more

We booked a hostel in Kaitaia and took a bus trip up to the cape. You can drive up the beach, the buses do, but its pretty dangerous and you have no car insurance if you break down and the tide comes in. There are only 2 or 3 exits off the beach, and no reception on the phone, so help may not come quickly. As the tide was in in the morning, we drove up the road out of sight of the sea (it was behind the sand dunes), through avocado, olive and wine orchards, and cattle country. This is also a place noted for kauri gum - they used to dig for it to make their fortune. The gum is a resin that bleeds from the tree, and can be found if it dropped ... read more

the highlight of no one's trip to new zealand maria and i toss around the idea of whisking ourselves away on some fabulously expensive but exciting tour of new zealand. still trying to figure where we'll be comfortable and happy for the next two weeks. in the end, we decide while we're already north, to head ALL the way up north to cape reinga and the 90 mile beach. first, stop, kaitaia, where you almost must stop before heading all the way up north. the lonely planet says kaitaia is the highlight of no one's trip to new zealand; that very well might be true. it's a small strip town feeling of a town with lots of tourist tour companies and not much else. we walk the very long strip down to our hostel where we ... read more

Day 36 - Friday 25th May 2007 Up 8.30ish. Said goodbye to the couple. Packed up car and eventually left after 10! Sar got talking to the owners and as polite as she is couldn't break away! So Gem just came along and said.... "right lets go". So off we went. Our plan was to walk the forests and end up in Kaitaia in the evening ready to get a bus trip the next day up to Cape Reinga. Gem drove us to Trounson Kauri Park where we dressed ourselves in suitable clothing and footwear and prepared to brave the torrential ...and i mean hammering...rain! We walked round the path through the forest. It was really cool, nice and pretty, green and calming. The trees were absolutely huge!!! There were loads of little information plaques about ... read more