Bay Of Islands

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Friday morning Melissa and Hopper picked me up from Leah and Blakes to get an early start on traffic. It takes about 4 and a half hour to get up to the bay of islands from Auckland and we wanted to be able to stop places along the way before we had to head to are camp site to check in. Traffic was not to bad because most people that were going up for the weekend left the night before. So once we got to the bay of islands there is alot of little towns to stop in and cheack out. So we did a little bit of shopping and taking pictures and then stopped for a drink at a little pub before heading to the camp site. The camp site we stayed at was along a really nice bay, we had a beautiful view from are cabin window. Are cabin had 3 beds in it ( one double and two singles), a little kitchen area and a table. So we were able to cook are own meals in it which was nice. That night we sat on the beach and watched the sun go down which way one of the most beautiful sun sets that I have seen while being here. then we went back to are cabin and just had drink and played games so that we could get to bed early due to are busy day the next day. We found a few cockrotches which were kinda sick ( since we dont have any back from) but other then that the place was pretty clean. While playing cards we ad this cat come and join us, who was really big but super cute and clean. We figured it must have been the owner cat. So it came in and sat and Hoppers lap most of the night then moved and curled up on my bed. It was soo cute we did not wont to move it, so it stayed withus the whole night, sleeping on are beds and purring like crazy. We were all very happy to have her there since we miss having pets very much.
The next day we got up early to drive to where are 90 mile beach tour was picking us up. The tour was on a bus with a bunch of other people and it took up the whole day. It was really worth it tho because we got to go the ancient Kauri kingdome which isa showroom featuring handcrafted products,fine art, crafts and furniture made on site from 45,000 year old ancient kauri logs from the local farmland. It was all really cool to see and we bought a few things made out of the wood. It was hard to believe how old it all was, but very cool. Then we got to stop at the Gumdiggers park which we got a tour of and explaination on how the farming worked back in the day for the gumdiggers. Something I knew nothing about when I came there so it was very interesting to learn the history of another part of new zealands culture and history. We also stops at a few beaches the take pictures. All reallywonderful beaches too. Then we drove up to Cape Reinga which is the furthest north point in New Zealnd where you can see both the Tasman sea and the Pacific ocean at the same time in which they meet.It was amazing, a real breath taking experience. There is really nothing past that point. So standing at pretty much the edge of the earth is pretty amazing never mind the fact that it is so beautiful. There are really no words to discribe the feeling you get when you stand there. It is also a significant place to the Maori because they believe that there spirts after death travel to decend the roots of the ancient pohutukwa tree which grows on Cape Reinga into the underworld. So not only was it beautiful place to see and experience but it was neat to learn about the culture behind it too. We then had lunch on a beach at the cape called spirts bay. We then continued on to 90 mile beach where you can drive along the whole 90 miles. We got to try sand bording on the sand dunes there as well which was really fun, its like going down a snow hill but its a sand hill. The beach was amazing and reallycool to be able to drive down the whole 90 miles of it. There is a speed limit and everything, people treat it just like driving on the high way, pretty cool. We then headed back to where we started and the tour was over.
Over all a pretty amazing day. The tour driver was really cool. He told us alot about everything that we were seeing so we learned alot and he was really funny and he would sing us songs in Maouri. The weather was perfect, we really could not have asked for anything more out of the day. What a spectacular paradise bay of islands is. It really is a place you would never forget.

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