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Published: March 22nd 2009
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Interesting Landscape.
This landscape is all sand dune under 6 inches of top soil. It is amazing that anything grows! Hey All,
Sean and I spent 3 nights up at the most northern point of the North Island, around Cape Reinga. We pitched our tent at a gorgeous little beach on the north east side and did day hikes during the day. Our first full day there we did a 6.5 hour loop of the north end of the cape. We were able to follow the coast line from our campsite up to the cape itself and then down a beach on on the Northwest side and across some massive sand dunes and back through the bush and onto the road to get back to our campsite. It was a beautiful (albeit incredibly HOT day). The sand dunes where the most neat part of the trek for Sean and I, although we greatly appreciated the shade in the bush, as well. We saw our first penguin and lizard while in NZ, it was just a pity that they happened to be dead. Looking at the penguin I said to Sean, "When I said I wanted to see these animals in NZ, I guess I didn't clarify that I wanted them to be alive" (referring to the beached whale we also
saw on Stewart Island).
Our second day, also a hot one, and also St Patty's Day (!) we cheated a little by driving closer to our desired point (1 hour away one way) verses walking from the campsite which would been 3-4 hours one way. We walked through some kauri bush and were able to see one particular large kauri tree, and walked to the highest point in Northland, which proved not to have that great of views due to all the bush around it. One thing that was interesting that we did run into, though, was a swimming pool on top of a hill.... Random?! When we returned to the campsite we moved between the shade and the ocean trying to keep cool. Sean read for awhile on the beach while I buried him up to his beach and hands in sand. Haha. Later on we had a Netherlands fellow camped next to us. We spent the evening on the beach with him chatting and drinking wine, beer and rum. A perfect St Patty's Day.
The only thing that threw both Sean and I about the Netherlands fellow is that he attempted to tell us that we
weren't allowed to be TOO proud to be Americans. Seriously, man??? I could tell Sean was annoyed by the comment as quickly as I was when his rebuttal was, "Well you can't be too proud to be European!" The comment didn't ruin the evening at all, but it is something we've been faced with a time or two here. It doesn't matter how proud Sean and I are or aren't to be Americans (although we feel much better about it now that Obama is in charge!), we don't need someone who isn't an American suggesting that we should be ashamed of ourselves, you know!? Forgive me for ranting, but Sean and I have also had a similar problem with our encounter with Israelis automatically assuming we're on their side in the Palestinian conflict. As mentioned before, it doesn't matter if we are or aren't, we just don't like being told how we think because we're Americans. We had a couple others ask if we thought New Zealand was part of Australia when they found out we were Americans. ERG! Again, seriously???
Anyway.... Enough ranting. Our last day at Cape Reinga we got up, ate breakfast and packed up, and
then drove down 90 Mile Beach. I was incredibly nervous about driving down the beach in our non-4 wheel drive car, especially since one has to drive for 4k through a stream in order to even get to the beach. That, and I also don't like all the warning signs about tides and people losing their cars to the sea, etc. BUT, once we were through the stream and actually on the beach it was a lot of fun. It took us nearly an hour to make it down. The length of the beach is roughly 90km. We did all but the last 17k where you really need 4 wheel drive. Sean had an absolute blast on the beach. He hit 100k (60mi) on the sand! There were very few other cars around, so it was a pretty neat experience. We did encounter about 5 tour buses going the other way, though. A crazy site.
From there we ended in Kaitaia for more WWOOFing. Will post that blog soon!
Best,
Emily
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Megan
non-member comment
WTF
Here, Here! I'm sick of this anti-Amercian crap. I even have to hear about it from my own boyfriend. I'm going to tell him he shouldn't be so proud to be Turkish, LOL. Now, I know what it feels like to be a minority ;-) People prejudge you but it easier to make friends with other expats.