Day 3 - Still Headed North

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I should have named this entry “Still raining”. We haven’t seen the sun in 4-5 days and Brian is starting to freak out. Chris was our tour guide and a very cool guy. We had a long discussion of New Zealand politics and their stance of nuclear programs at lunch. Our first stop was an ancient Kauri forest and it was pouring. Short shop. After stopping about 10 times for bathrooms (lots of old people on the bus) and a long drive up a gravel road, we made it to the top of New Zealand and …the sun! A great setting where the Tasman sea and the Pacific come together. This point of the Island is called Cape Reinga and has some significance to the Maori. A small tree grows on a bit of rock and is said to mark the point where a Maori spirit has one last look at the Island before he leaves for his homeland. There’s a light house there for practical purposes, and a geocache!. Lots of pics and then we loaded up and headed for the sand dunes for some sand boarding. Brian had to try this so check out the pic. Amy stayed below to be the photographer and then decided the long walk wasn't worth the trouble. She tried out the bunny slope instead and got her own photo op. After that, we hit the beach. The bus is modified to drive on the beach and that’s what we did, for about 60 miles! Very cool. The bottom of the beach took us back to the main road and back to Paihia. We think we’re almost ready to get our own car. We’re hoping today is the end of the jet lag. By 6 pm, we’re exhausted and too tired to look for food. Amy hoards food during the day so we can have picnics in our room. That’s a good thing. That’s all for today. Stay tuned.

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