Having made it to the top of New Zealand, the bottom came very quickly after...

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First off some good news...the weather has stayed good, and I had incredibly good conditions for my week in the north of NZ. The heavy rain while driving up north last Thursday cleared away the humidity.

I checked in last week from Whangerai, quite possibly the pat & display capital of the world. Lots of car parks. The only city in Northlans didn't blow me away with it's beauty (though it did have great cafes and a great fush'n'chups place), but it was very impressed what its hinterland had to offer. The Whangerai Falls are NZ's most photographed falls, if not the highest, still I really enjoyed them, plus the Whangerai Heads were awesomely beautiful. It helped that I had great weather. Did a great walk around Busby Head/ Smugglers Cove, about 1.5 hours but if I'd been more prepared I'd have walked for longer. I didn;t get to the Abbey Caves, which I think is the city's biggest attraction. I tried, but failed to find them last Friday night. It did not help I went to look for them in the dark. It was quite fun looking for them though, treking through a forest relying on my head torch. Slightly scary at times, hearing noises from the trees and seeing eyes peeping out at one point...I just kept reminding myself that nothing in NZ can kill me. Ok, I can still get bitten or attacked, but nothing in NZ is poisonous. Now if I was in Australia I would have been cacking it!

Saturday saw me head up to the Bay of Islands, and an overnight trip on The Rock, a converted car ferry. I half expected a wild and lairy night, but it was actually all very refined, with people on board ranging from families to married couples in their 60's to soloists in their 20's, like me. I'd recommend The Rock to anyone heading up to the Bay of Islands, way better than those 4 hours cruises offered all around Paihia. I checked out Russell once back on dry land, and found it a but too sleepy, though the church is worth checking out.

But probably the highlight of New Zealand so far has been Cape Reinga, which is almost very nearly the northernmost point in NZ, only the Surville Cliffs 3km north beat them. They however are not so accessible. The road all the way up to Cape Reinga is now almost fully sealed so I could have brought the hire car up there, but as I was keen to see Ninety Mile Beach, I did a tour, booked through my hostel in Ahipara. I was rather saddened that my tour bus was filled with older tourists. Out of the 22, there was myself and a young English couple, otherwise no one else was below 50. Yikes. And we had some rather loud Canadians and Aussies too...groan. One of the Canadian annoyed me at lunch by asking me (and the English couple) if we were travelling because we had wealthy parents. I very quickly advised him that I've been working since 2001. Anyway, the Cape was great, though I dare say the beach is passable. The weather cleared for the Cape and there was this great end-of-the-world feeling. Incredible.

That was the top, and the bottom was no doubt the town of Kaitaia, the nearest town to my hostel in Ahipara. Even the Lonely Planet guidebook, which I feel is rather overpositive about places and sights advises of not bothering to stop unless you need a supermarket or ATM. It's a poor town and the people don't seem to be happy about the tourists passing through...we had things thrown at our tour bus! Sort of biting the hand that feeds you, since we bring money into the town. What scared me most of all was the aggressive driving up there, even scarier when the locals have very poor cars! And since car insurance isn't compulsory, many of them don't have it, since the cars are not worth insuring.

I've left the North now, and after a lot of driving am now after arriving in Rotorua. The drive from Hamilton was via the Waitomo Caves, a bit tourisy but worth the time. Many times on the road south of Auckland I had to reassure myself I was actually in NZ, and not back home!

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