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Published: February 10th 2009
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9th February 2009 - RAINY DAY DOING NOTHING!!!
I woke at around 7.30am. It looked pretty grey outside but instead of rolling over I obeyed my belly and got out of bed for breakfast!! I took my book outside but after half an hour reading whilst getting wet through from that fine rain we sometimes get, I took my reading to bed. As expected I fell back to sleep and got up properly at around 9am.
The fine rain had got a little heavier and so our plans for a ferry trip around the Bay of Islands was thwarted as visibility was poor. Similarly…no hair cut in the rain…..no point as it would get wet and I had no where to go to make the most of it!! The girl in my room allowed me to use her straightners though….soft straight hair that smelt of cinnamon…I had forgotten what that was like!!! On a down side to my day my mobile phone broke…been going wappy for a while and kept turning the writing back to front….today it wouldn’t work at all though!!
After getting dressed I went to phone the folks. Reverse charges worked a treat and didn’t have
View of the Harbour!!
2nd Biggest in Southern Hemisphere apparently after Sydney!! to worry about it cutting off on me so got to speak to them for a while. It was nice and cheered me up after my mobile breaking although surprised when dad started talking to me about ‘Dancing on Ice’…..think he must’ve gone soft whilst I’ve been away!! I spent the rest of the morning doing washing, catching up on my journal and reading. At 12.30ish Nat and I headed for a walk into town in our trusty macs. Not much cracking off in town and so after walking around for a while, buying a replacement phone (more unwanted expense) and calling at the supermarket we headed back in the rain to the hostel.
Back at the hostel I went on the net for a couple of hours, chilled out in the room and then at 6ish I cooked my tea. Haven’t had potatoes for ages and so a jacket potato went down a treat..healthy too!! Following tea we had a wander to the sea front to try and catch the sunset but it was too grey so we headed back to the hostel and spent the rest of the evening watching ‘Bone Collector’ in the TV room! Good
film!! It was then off to the land of nod….not the most exciting day I have had!!!
10th February 2009 - MY MY.....THAT TREE IS HUGE!!!
Got up this morning at 6.30…it was time to head back on the coach to Auckland. Stocked up on a big breakfast and got on the bus at 7am. The weather was poor again so I suppose it was a good day to be travelling though the scenery was not quite as impressive in the greyness……for a second I thought I was in the lakes in England!!!
We travelled from Paihai to Rawene passed some impressive historic buildings and on through Oponini and around Hokianga Harbour. The drivers were pretty good and gave us a commentary about the history of the places we were passing through without droning on too much. Despite the rain I quite enjoyed looking out and taking everything in but I also enjoyed starting my new book too. Loving the reading whilst travelling…going through dozens of books!!
We stopped at around 11.30 at Waipoua Forest where we went on a short walk into the forest to see a giant tree called ‘Tane Mahuta’. It was huge and
measured 51.5 metres in height and 13.8 metres in girth. It was known as ‘God of the Forest’ and is 2000 years old. Moari culture states that that the tree is the son of the father sky and mother earth and developed when he pushed the two apart. As he pushed earth and sky apart light appeared and with it life. Cool story!! Big tree!! I wanted to hug it to show how big it was but no such luck…you couldn’t get near it!! Can’t even get a hug from a tree these days!!
Once back on the bus we headed down the West coast via Dargaville and stopped for the last time at a café in Matakohe. I was starving as I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was now 2.30pm. I filled up on a tasty Panini followed by a scone and an nice brew!! You can take the girl out of England but you cant take the English out of the girl!!!
Back on the bus I chatted with Nat and listened to music for the rest of the way to Auckland. We arrived in Auckland at around 5.30pm and checked into our hostel -
Base! Once again Base did not live up to its name. Too big for me and felt grubby!! Glad we were only staying a night!! Saying that we got a free beer at the bar which was cool! The rest of the evening was spent doing more trip planning and chilling out. I went to bed excited about picking a car up the following day and moving on to explore the rest of the North Island to see what NZ really has to offer!!
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