New Zealand - North Island

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We got to our hostel at around 2am - just in time to see the second half of England v's Australia rugby! We spent 2 days in Auckland where we did a city tour and sorted out our camper van rental. We couldn't decide whether to go on the magic bus and hostel it, or hire a car or a camper - so many hours were spent deliberating! We went for a camper in the end as we thought this would be more fun even though a little more expensive! Whilst in Auckland, Chris did a controlled base jump from the sky tower as the tour guide offered it for free!! It was 192 metres high (tallest jump in NZ) and it was a warm up for things to come!

From Auckland we drove via Whangarei to the Bay of Islands at the north of the island. We went on a boat trip to swim with dolphins and see the 'hole in the rock'. We saw loads of dolphins and they were amazing (just like flipper!!), but unfortunately we couldn't swim with them as there were juveniles in the pod. We then drove via Kerikeri to Kaitaia where we booked onto a trip to go to Cape Reinga and 90 mile beach. Cape Reinga is the Northern-most point in NZ where you can see the Pacific Ocean and Tasmin Sea meet. We then drove back down 90 mile beach which is actually about 66 miles!! You have to do a tour for these as you cannot drive on the beach without a 4x4 as you will sink!! Whilst on this trip, Chris went sandboarding on the sand dunes and managed to stack it only once!!

We then drove south to Dargaville where we spent the night before going to the Coromandel peninsula. This was a very scenic drive and we did our first 'illegal' camp. We spent the night in the camper at the top of a scenic lookout. We then went to hot water beach but unfortunately as the tide was high we couldn't dig ourselves a bath!!

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