Sweet As!

Transport for the next month

Bay of Islands:
We arrived into Auckland in the pouring rain (not impressed) and headed for dinner at a italian restaurant that had free wifi- we did not realise this would be the only free wifi we would get! New Zealand is not like Asia they are all about making money. We started our kiwi experience adventure the next day and headed north to Bay of Islands. Close to the northern tip of New Zealand it took us a few hours to reach Paihia, where we booked into our first dorm of many. We chilled out on a beach before a BBQ for dinner where we were able to properly meet the other people on our bus. That night we took part in the bar quiz with 2 Norwegians and a Finnish girl. Unfortunately we suck at quizzes and so didn't even hand in our half empty answer sheet.

Just driving along the beach...in a coach!

Collecting hidden shellfish

The next day was New Zealand's national day, Waitangi Day celebrating a treaty signed by both the Maori and the Europeans. There were lots of celebrations in Paihia but we spent the day visiting Cape Reinga, the northernmost tip of New Zealand where the Tasman sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. On route we spent a wee while wandering around a kauri forest. These trees are the second largest in the world after the Californian redwoods, and we even saw a staircase carved into one in a furniture showroom. Next we arrived at 90 mile beach (which is actually only 60 miles..) and came across a road speed sign just as we reached the sand. There is a 100 mile an hour limit on the beach! It was a very strange experience, hurtling along the beach in a coach for an hour without slowing down to avoid getting stuck. We hopped out at one point to enjoy the views and dig our feet into the sand to find shellfish. Then we headed along a river bed to a huge sand dune for an extreme sport....well it was extreme enough for us! Throwing yourself down a very steep sand dune on a boogie board is slightly terrifying but amazing fun. The most amusing part was watching others wipe out at the bottom of the slope.

Long way up

Managed to stay dry

After all this excitement we headed to Cape Reinga, where we stood by a lighthouse and watched 2 oceans met. The scenery around the area is truly stunning.

Cape Reinga Lighthouse

Meeting of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean

Huge Kaori tree

Staircase carved out the inside of the tree

The next day we had an early start so that we could go searching for dolphins. We jumped on a boat and drove around for over an hour before we spotted our first bottlenose dolphin. They came right up to the boat and soaked us while we were trying to take photos. Then we were given a quick safety briefing before the majority of people on the boat launched themselves into the very deep water for a chance to swim with these beautiful animals. Katie stayed on the boat so that she could laugh at Sarah trying to chase the dolphoins. Apparently we only swam with 2 but it seemed like a whole pod, because they are so fast and seem to appear out of nowhere. Without warning we were suddenly within touching distance of completely wild dolphins, which was just totally awesome.

Sarah swimming around

Hot Water Beach:

After returning to Auckland for a night (and $5 pizza, oooh yeah), we hopped onto our second kiwi experience bus and made some new friends. We are getting pretty good at the whole friend-making business, although it is sad when we have to leave them. Heading south we travelled to the Coromandel peninsula, where we hopped out and wandered along the coast to a beautiful cove called Cathedral Cove. There was white sand and crystal clear water with a fantastic archway that high tide would close off. We swam and sunbathed before starting the trek back.

When we arrived at our nights accommodation in Hot Water Beach we were pleasantly surprised. The dorm rooms were really nice, friends of ours even had a wee cabin/shed to themselves. There was a sheltered outside living area with comfy sofas where we spent a couple of hours relaxing. For dinner we made an effort to be healthy (not easily done when travelling)and bought a yummy looking salad. Unfortunately there are a lot of people out to make money in NZ and we refused to buy a $2 plastic fork....so the salad eating was restricted to what we could manage with our fingers.

Cathedral Cove

After our little food mishap it was time for the main event, the whole reason to visit Hot Water Beach...digging holes in the sand at low tide. Earlier in the day we had managed to nab a couple of shovels for our group to use and only when we went to pick them up did we spot a certain Canadian with them-from that day on she was known to us as the Spade Thief! On this particular day  low tide was at midnight and so after grabbing a head torch (not many people thought of this and had to wander in the dark) we headed past some glow worms to the beach. It was a surreal experience on the beach because there was quite a lot of people milling around, and only when you take a closer look do you notice that lots of them are digging away or relaxing in a pool of water. Once a hole has been dug it fills with geo-thermically heated water and so you ultimately sit in a spa pool of your own creation. There is some skill involved because you can't dig too close to the seawater's edge or cold saltwater will flood your pool, but you also can't dig in certain places on the beach or risk scalding your bum. Once the digging was complete we had a great time relaxing in our hot pool. 

Digging away

The water was so hot we couldn't properly sit in it!