End of the World

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Geo: -34.4277, 172.68

Burning thighs - that's not typically what you would want while on holiday, but that's what we experienced today, plenty of it, in fact. That's what we got for deciding to try our hand at sand boarding, at the massive sand dunes known as Giant Te Paki. See, the problem is not actually going down the sand dune, but having to hike up - definitely not an easy task, especially on a hot, sunny day, and when the incline is so pronounced that for every two steps of progress made, you seemingly lose one.

I don't think it would be possible to do more than a handful of runs, and in fact, we are so out of shape that we barely even did that many! While somewhat entertaining, it was hardly worth the burn required to get to the top, just for those few seconds of fun. Especially when one of those runs ends in a face plant at the end, after the dunes slope sharply transitions at the end, resulting in a bent set of sunglasses and a mouthful of sand.

Cape Reinga was a fair bit more entertaining, but not quite as flavourful as that mouthful of sand, since it's essentially the northernmost point of NZ. Places like Reinga are always cool, with that end of the earth kind of feel that you don't find everywhere - probably the last time we did was many years ago at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. A short scenic walk, and the requisite photo ops, certainly resulted in far less thigh burning than we experienced earlier.

However, like the old saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished, as those calories we burned earlier on the sand dunes were soon replaced, and then some. We could've been proud that we got in some decent physical activity today, perhaps the most since our day of hiking around Mount Doom and Mordor, but no, we had to counteract everything that we had done - with a big basket of greasy fish and chips!

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Photos

The Dune Was Roasting Hot ...
... Likely due to all of those burning thighs!

Must Be Seen In Person ...
... It's really hard to see the scale of the dunes in the photo - you really have to be there to understand its size.

Look At the Water ...
... On the left are some whitecaps that indicate where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean come crashing together.

Greek Salad For Breakfast ...
... You don't often see that, but we had leftovers from last night! Our first time having rock melon, it was incredibly sweet and juicy, and extremely similar to cantaloupe. The local feta we got yesterday was as good on its own, as it was with the Greek salad. The kiwi fruit, however, was a tad disappointing - after the excellent ones we had to start the trip in Picton, we haven't been able to find ones as stellar.

Ghetto Picnic ...
... As if eating off of our dashboard wasn't bad enough, we ate the tomato and cucumber like savages - by biting chunks off of them! The spiced pork in the sandwich wasn't bad, but again, the corn stole the show.

Mangonui Fish Shop and Takeaways ...
... the batter was a bit soggy, but the quality of fish was top-notch.