Day 19 - Northland and back to Auckland

---

Today was a day to relax before we head home tomorrow. We found out that when you are not traveling at the height of tourist season, shops that cater to tourists do not open on Mondays. Breakfast was a collection of pastries and sausage rolls from a bakery in town before checking out and heading to the beaches.

We managed to visit both the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea today, just to check out the differences. Both beaches were pretty flat with lots of sea shells and very little else. No seaweed and no creatures in the tide pools. We found one lonely hermit crab (with a really beautiful shell) on the Pacific Ocean beach. There were also some really great rocks. The waves were larger on the west coast (Tasman Sea) but that could have been because the wind picked up in the afternoon.

Our next adventure was driving in Auckland. Not too bad but we wouldn't do it again unless we had to. (we'll have to tomorrow to get to the Airport (sigh))

Tonight we'll be spending time packing up for the trip home tommorow night and generally relaxing. Tony and Anne decided to eat out in Auckland city but Chris wanted to order in a Pizza and spend some time on his own. After 19 days we are all starting to feel a bit too close to each other.

Our last adventure in New Zealand will be a harbour cruise and a trip to a nearby island on our host's catamaran, "Whiskers". (Chris is going to hang out at the B&B). Then it's back to the airport for our flight home tomorrow night.

---

Photos

A beach
A nice beach... don't recall which one

Hermit
The hermit crab... alive and well... about the only living thing we could find on the beaches (unlike CA where there is a lot of wildlife on the beaches).

Random water pool
We don't know why these formed, but there were lots of upwellings or springs of water on the beach making pools around rocks. neat!