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Published: December 12th 2005
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Arriving in New Zealand at 4am and feeling shattered after a 12 hour flight, we caught a shuttle bus to the Fat Camel Hostel in downtown Auckland. A busy hostel, so much so that we had to leave our bags outside the room and wait for our beds to be vacated.
The hostel staff then recommended that instead of catching up on some sleep , we do a free city tour. This sounded like a good way to orientate ourselves, so we signed up. It was also our first introduction to Stray Travel, a company that operate buses on different routes around the country where you can hop on and off as much as you like. The tour guide on the city tour (Craig) was great fun, and he took us to the Harbour Bridge, a couple of high view points over the city, the Yachting club where we saw two Americas Cup yachts, and a Speights pub for a tasy lunch. Craig obviously did his job well as we decided to stick with Stray for our tour of New Zealand.
Our second day in Auckland , we met up with some familiar faces from home. Lin's parent's had decided
Auckland
Skytower views of Auckland.. and no I'm not jumping! to come on holiday to New Zealand whilst we were away, so it was great that we managed to meet up at the start of our respective trips around the country to catch up and arrange future meeting points.. (and also to plead for their assistance with taking our shopping home!)
As the Stray route headed south from Auckland, we had also booked a separate trip with Awesome Adventures for the Bay of Islands and to the most northerly point of New Zealand, Cape Reinga.
The first leg was an express bus journey to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. Stopping at the maritime centre, we immediately checked in for our trip on the 'Excitor', a power boat with 1600hp and about twenty seats. Lin and I bagged seats at the front for the ride out to the 'Hole in the Rock', a huge tunnel through an even bigger rock sticking out at the end of the peninsular. The sea was fairly calm so the ride was quite smooth, at least as smooth as possible at 40 knots!
The hostel then lent us some mountain bikes, which we used to ride out to the 'Treaty House' where the
The Excitor!
Hair raising stuff at 40 knots! ancient treaty was signed between the English and the Maori's over land rights. Turned out to be quite pricey so we didn't venture inside.
The following day, 'Auto' a crazy funny kiwi who couldn't stop saying 'Sweet As!', picked us up outside Peppertree Lodge and we drove north stopping at a Kauri Forest to see the Kauri trees which are up to a thousand years old, and five metres in diameter. Shortly after walking through the forest, we had a narrow escape as the bus in front of us was side-swiped by a 4x4 coming round the bend too fast!
After checking the lady was OK, we carried on to Cape Reinga at the top of NZ. Walked down to an old lighthouse which was unmanned, and looked out to where the Tasman Sea (greenish) met the Pacific (bluey purpleish!) Amazing stuff!
Then the fun started,as we drove round to the top of Ninety mile beach. Before we got the bus on the beach, we all climbed up a huge sand dune, and went down on our fronts on bodyboards. It was pretty steep so we went flying down the hill and if you didn't brake to
The hole in the rock.
Yes, we went through there.. much (with your feet...ouch!) you carried on over the stream at the bottom. Wicked fun, and we climbed up another three times! Then it was on to the beach, and Auto gunned the bus along at about 60 miles an hour, brushing the edge of the water with the odd wave reaching up to the bus. We stopped once for a paddled, and had to move the bus to get back on as a jellyfish had decided to stop in front of the door.
Once we'd got back to Pahia, it was time for dinner then a quick snooze for me so I could get up to watch the England v All Blacks game at 3am. Unfortunately we lost, but it was funny being surrounded by Kiwis panicking that they might lose at the end.
The following day, we went down to town then to the beach relaxing for a change. Not for long though... Lin decided to go up Parasailing! I thought $20 was alot to just sit in the boat and watch, so I hired a kayak for $10 and paddled out to the boat to get a birds eye view.
She had a big smile
Cape Reinga
Where Tasman meets Pacific.. on her face as I paddled back to meet her at the beach.
Back to the hostel, then to the seafront to catch the bus back to Auckland.
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Jonathan Humble
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New Zealand looks awesome
Long time no hear, good to see you are both still alive, you will be glad to hear I am working in the office, whilst you are on holiday. What dates are you in Dubai