Day 14

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands » Paihia
February 3rd 2010

Published: February 4th 2010

Ok, this is going to be a long one so I advise you go and make a cup of tea then sit down to read it... NB about photos... I'm going to be back in London for a few days and I'll upload them all. I'm going to take my laptop out with me when I come back so this photo uploading thing stops being so stressful. I also have a few videos.

Today was by far my best day in NZ (although it's not really competing with all that much). I woke up super early, the sky was blue which is often a good start. I got on the bus with a bunch of other people and the driver called Spike, who promptly described himself as a "bloody normal Kiwi" and started going through the safety procedures... "If the bus falls on it's side, the emergency exits are in the roof. If the bus rolls totally over onto the roof, you guys are pretty stuffed. Throw the Aussies at the window (there was an Australian couple) and hope they bloody well break it. If a fire starts, the fire extinguisher is right next to the door which isn't particularly helpful. This is a rubbish bus anyway, it's not my normal one because I broke that one yesterday." Then we set off. He also mentioned that today was one of the four days a month that he won't get fired if he leaves someone behind because there's a very strong tide, and timing is everything throughout the day.

We started in this forest which had Kauri trees in it. They are really really big trees, second biggest in the world (after the Californian redwood). NZ used to be covered in them, but the British settlers cut them all down to build boats. They take thousands of years to grow, and were basically all cut down within 20 years. We then drove to the 90 mile beach, which is classified as a road so you can drive along it. Driving along a beach in a coach was pretty amazing. We got out for a bit of a wander and a photo opportunity. Tide was "getting a bit hairy" so we drove off to the other end of the beach (but along the real road). We drove down this stream to get to a MASSIVE sand dune. Spike said that the tallest sand dune measured at 182m, and I'm sure that this one wasn't too far off. We climbed up which was absolute HELL. Walking along sand is exhausting. Walking up a sand dune is exhausting. Walking up the biggest sand dune you've ever seen while the wind is blowing sand in your face is HORRIBLE. But as Spike put it "The higher you go, the faster you go. The faster you go, the bigger the injuries you get. The bigger the injuries you get, the more fun you were having." By the time I got to the top I was COVERED in sand, but not because I'd been rolling in it or anything as exciting as that. I was about to get on my board to sandboard down and it blew away... right away. Nothing would stop that board. So I had to walk alllllll the way back down to the bottom, get another one and do that horrible trek again. Eventually I sandboarded down the sand dune which was pretty cool, but I'm not convinced it was worth all that pain.

We then went to a beach on the Pacific (the other beach was on the Tasman Sea). The water was pretty rough so we weren't allowed to swim, but then we found this little cove where the water was a lot calmer and we all dived in. I'm still filled with sand though. I have so much sand in my ears that I'm sure that when I wake up tomorrow morning there will be a little heap of sand on my pillow. Another quote from Spike "You guys will have so much fun, but you'll be pooing sandcastles for the next week". We then drove up to the northernmost point of NZ, which is a very spiritual place for the Maori. You can see the marks where the Pacific meets the Tasman sea, and the Maori believe that spirits of the dead walk along the ridges of the mountains to get there, waving goodbye to New Zealand. They go all the way to the northernmost point, where the boy sea and the girl sea meet, and there are whirlpools. They then make their way to the motherland, which is believed to be somewhere near Tahiti (they call it Waiheke). One of the things I hadn't appreciated about the Maori is that they haven't always been in NZ, unlike the Aborigines in Australia. A Polynesian man was watching the birds flying north, and he decided to load up his Waka (canoe) and paddle down to follow them. He found NZ, and moved there with many of his friends and family. That was about 800 years ago. William the Conqueror had invaded England long before the Maori settled in NZ. Anyway, about 200 years ago the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman (Tasmania is named after him, as is the Tasman Sea) discovered NZ, but he never set foot on it. The first man to set foot on NZ was James Cook.

I digress. We started heading home, picking up some fish and chips on the way. The fish was the freshest I've ever tasted, it was probably having a regular morning and then ended up in my belly in the afternoon. It was absolutely delicious. We went to a workshop where they fashion crafts out of Kauri wood. It's illegal to cut down Kauri trees nowadays, but they dig them out of the swamps where they have lain for 45,000 years. They had the most beautiful pieces of furniture, plus some regular tourist stuff. I am, however, a backpacker who is watching my money so I could only take photos and not take anything home with me. They had even made a staircase inside one of the trunks of the trees they recovered.

What a good day out. I'm exhausted, but very happy. And I think I may be a little sunburnt. It was BEAUTIFUL weather, and lovely scenery. Can't wait to put the photos up.

So tomorrow I'm going to go to Russell, which is the site of the first settlement of Europeans in NZ. I'm just going to go for a wander and get some presents, more specifically a birthday present for my mum. In my time, it's her birthday today... has been for a while. But back home, it only just started. Happy birthday!!!

The day after tomorrow... Oh I am so excited that if I think about this too much I start hyperventilating... I'm going on a mini cruise. It's called The Rock and I'm sure you can google it. Basically I get on the boat at about 4:45pm. We go fishing and catch our dinner, eat it on the barbecue on the boat. There isn't that much room for too many people, I think only about 30, so I should meet even more happy travellers like myself. Anyway, I spend the night on board the boat. When it gets dark, we go night-kayaking so that you can see the luminescence of the fish and jellyfish. The next day we go snorkelling, and explore some of the islands around here. We also go shooting, but I'm not sure what we shoot and why. And we'll probably see a variety of birds and dolphins!! It's a fantastic deal for what I get, because it's basically a compilation of all that this area can offer me, and works out cheaper. It's highly recommended by anyone you ask about it, and it should be fabulous.

That's all for today. Maybe a little bit more about NZ that I learnt today...
1) NZ used to be 95% forest, before the British settled and turned a lot of it into pastures.
2) There are no native mammals that live in NZ.
3) Most of the birds and plants you find here cannot be found native anywhere else in the world.

Over and out.

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