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Published: August 4th 2008
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3 Girls. 2 Boys. 1 Car. And a hell of a lot of bags.
Road Trip!
Kate, Laura, Rob, Harry and myself set off bright and early (well, 10am when we left the ACB hostel and squeezed our stuff into the boys' car) for our Road Trip to the very north of the North Island - the beautifully named Bay of Islands!
Rob drove the 3 hour journey along the winding roads through hilly countryside, a journey made even better when us girls were allowed to sing at full blast to our 'girly' tunes in the car! All together now 'Lady in Red'...! After a home made sandwich courtesy of New World, we arrived in Paihia - a tiny town a stone's throw away from the beach. After a lovely pasta meal a la Rob, we wandered down to the beach and checked out the town. Which took all of about twenty minutes - it's pretty small! Nothing for it but to chill out back at the hostel (probably one of the nicest hostels I've stayed at) in our little 5 bed room.
The next morning was a little bit cloudy so after a nice long lie
in the next morning and phonecalls home, we settled down to watch a DVD. It had brightened up enough in the afternoon to drag the hostel's kayaks down to the beach and go for a paddle! All good fun as the pictures show - until Harry 'accidentally' whacked Kate with her own kayak and sent her right under the water!! Not a forgiveable offence! And a couple of kids were pestering me to let them jump off my kayak! Time to head home I think.
For dinner we went to 'Vinni's Takeaway' for good old fashioned fish 'n' chips to eat by the water's edge as the sun went down - very serene until Laura tried to break an unbreakable ketchup and, third time lucky, it exploded - all over Rob's trousers. I honestly nearly wet myself laughing!
Day three - the boys and I did the touristy bit. We went on a nice quick walk around the Waitangi Treaty House, the site where Maori chiefs and the NZ government signed an historic treaty in 1840 (although today there's debate about whether the Maori/English language versions mean the same), plus a very impressive War canoe - an army
reaching dry land on one of these would be a very scary site.
In the afternoon we went for a quick drive round Kerikeri, and home to play tennis - where the girls beat the boys and I got very red in the face playing my best game against a random girl! Back to the hostel for a quiet night - until Laura started making fun of Rob that is! We had some real laughs on this road trip.
Saturday morning we were up before the sun on a coach trip to the north of the country - Cape Reinga. It was a nice drive although the bus driver was a little bit enthusiastic on the windy turns which made us all feel pretty sick. Had the shortest walk around a Kauri tree forest almost before the sun came up - also known as Very Big Trees™.
The bus took us along the beach highway, Ninety Mile Beach - not ninety miles as you might guess but in fact 60km (37 miles) - who's counting anyway? Where we got to jump out an play in the waves in the sunshine. I confused one lady by shouting 'Wave'
as I took a photo of the others, causing her to start running and look behind her!
Laura took pictures of us sandboarding down the biggest sand dunes I've ever seen - the sun beat down on us on our long walk to the top and it was just about worth it! The technique - elbows in, grip on tightly, toes to steer! And try to aim for the water at the bottom - not the big dip I ended up plonking down on - very fast but not so smooth. Then onto the Smallest. Lighthouse. Ever. Where you can see where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.
Just enough time to visit a Kauri tree souvenier shop (the stairs to the top floor was actually a staircase inside a tree, nice) and head home for another fish 'n' chip dinner and a drink in the deserted bar opposite our hostel. Where was everyone?!
Day five - the a search for a beach! Found a fairly deserted beach with the biggest waves I've seen! We spent the afternoon jumping the waves while holding on to our bikinis/shorts for dear life (well, the rest of us spent
about half an hour but Kate was in there all afternoon) and drying off on the beach. Back to the hostel for a rest and then us girls proceceded to beat the boys at tennis. Again! Another sign that this place was tiny was that the ice cream place was closed in the early evening - outrage!
Monday we travelled back to Auckland, which was strange to recognise a familiar place and to move into a hostel - not like our cosy apartment! The last two nights in the city were spent chilling out with our friends (the girls beating the boys at bowling a personal highlight) and getting ready for our Kiwi Experience... All in all, a great road trip.
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