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Published: February 28th 2010
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Our next destination was the Bay of Islands, with a stop over for a day in Auckland so we could put up some posters of our car. We spent one night in the campsite with the smallest kitchen in New Zealand (unofficially). It was not all that bad though as we did end up getting some free food from a couple going home.
Anyway next stop was Whangarei, in the Northland. It was not that much of an interesting place itself, but nearby was Tutukaka, home to one of the top ten dive sites in the world. We got a boat over to the Poor Knights Island, where apparently the tropical current is the reason for fantastic marine life. We thought it was a bit of a myth though as the water was freezing (21°C), but being brave and English we jumped in with just our togs on for a snorkeling and kayaking session, before a little tour of the area on the boat.
So onwards to Paihia, a gorgeous little town in the Bay of Islands and home to possibly our favorite campsite in New Zealand (Twin Pines Tourist Park). We decided to book onto two full day
tours. The first one was the Twin Coast Discovery where we travelled all the way up to Cape Reinga, the most northern point of New Zealand, and where the Maori people believe their spirits leave the country after they die. We got an amazing view at the lighthouse, as you can actually see where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet as they are different colours due to the salt levels in the water.
Once we had taken in the view at the lighthouse we travelled down 90 mile beach, which of course is a 64 mile long beach that also doubles up as a main road. We zoomed along it in our coach with a little stop for a paddle, although we could not swim as it is one of the most dangerous beaches in the world for swimming. Next on the tour was dune boarding, which is sliding down a sand dune head first on a body board, pretty fun although the walk up in the heat was horrible. The rest of the tour was basically just the journey back to Paihia, learning some tales of the area that may be (but probably were not) true,
but fun non the less.
Next day and we were going on the Cream Tour with awesomenz.com, following the original 'cream' route around the Bay of Islands. This is the route that boats used to take to pick up cream from each island, dropping off mail and other essentials on the way. Nowadays it’s mainly a tourist thing, but they still do the mail. Another feature of the trip was 'swimming' with dolphins. We found this to be very badly run, were only told to get ready once we saw the dolphins, and the man was very patronising to everyone. There were also too many people doing it at the same time, plus the dolphins were not interested in us and the crew should have recognised that, but seemed to be more interested in the money and not customer satisfaction. Rant over. We got the chance to go Boom Netting, which is basically getting dragged along the water while sat in a giant net. Dan loved it, Julia however was not good at keeping her bikini on and some of the passengers, well actually most of the passengers got to see more of Julia that she would have liked.
Very embarrassing for her. Anyway the rest of the cream tour was really good and we got some great views of the islands.
The last thing in the Bay of Islands that we did was watch a show at the Waitangi treaty grounds, which is where the Maoris and the British first made peace, and hence the birth of New Zealand as we know it today. The show was really good and we enjoyed the Maori singing and dancing, and learning about the history of New Zealand.
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Melissa Megan Gilbert
non-member comment
Hi!
Hi! Julia and Dan, Looks like what you have been up to must be great fun! How much longer have you got in New Zealand? When are you coming back? Did you get my last message? I had a sleepover at my Cousins Jodies it was great fun we had a very girly day I went about 12:30pm and came home at 5:00pm the next day. We painted each others nails and did each others hair, and makeup. Mostly we played on the laptops till about, 2:00am. I am around Grand-dads and we are going to have a practise and have a nice big Sunday dinner! :) I hope to hear from you soon, Take care, Love Melissa Megan and Grand-dad Tams. P.s love your photo's.