So now I am right at the end of my time in New Zealand! I leave tomorrow.... So I'd better let everyone know what I've been getting up to until now!

I left Wellington and headed up to Taupo for an overnight stop, which was my last night with my Scottish friends Jess and Neil. I went to watch them do their skydives over Lake Taupo and it brought back all the memories of me doing mine! I was really jealous and wished that I could have done it again, but I can't afford to now unfortunately. Looked like they enjoyed it though! In the evening we teamed up and made a delicious pasta and sauce to eat together, then just watched a film and went to sleep. The next day I left Jess and Neil and headed up to Auckland again just for the night. It was quite nice being there as I got to catch up with my friend Claire who I originally travelled the North Island and the west coast of the South Island with. We went out for a couple of drinks in the evening but I went to bed early as I knew I had an early start the next morning.

On Saturday morning I woke up in time to get the 7.10am bus to Paihia in the Bay of Islands for my last trip in New Zealand. It was quite a long trip up, but we stopped off in a couple of places on the way, including a honey shop with free honey tasting - it was delicious!

When we got up to Paihia, I decided that since it was such a beautiful sunny day I would do something that I'd never done before - go fishing!! I wanted to get out on the water as everyone says that if you are going to go to the Bay of Islands the whole point in going is to go out on a boat. I didn't want to go on the dolphin watching trip as I've already seen dolphins many times before with my family in California, so I thought why not try something new and give fishing a go!? I got onto the boat after eating some lunch and we went through lots of different islands to where we stopped. It was absolutely beautiful, and after being down south it felt quite warm and certainly not anything like winter should be! We stayed out 4 hours and I met some cool guys on the boat who were fun to hang out with. I always thought fishing would be really boring, but it was actually really good fun! I think that if I didn't catch anything then I'd find it a little bit boring, but I caught 9!! Not bad for a first time fisher! 7 of them were too small and had to be thrown back in, but 2 of them were pretty big and I was allowed to keep them and I put them on the BBQ for my dinner! It was awesome :) On the way back into Paihia the sun was setting and looked absolutely beautiful with the clouds in the sky.

The next day I had another early start as it was my trip up to Cape Reinga; the northern-most point of New Zealand. Unfortunately it was raining quite a lot all day, but I didn't let that dampen my spirits. The first stop was at a Kauri forest, which is one of the biggest trees in the world other than redwood in the states. These trees were absolutely massive and they take 4000years to mature to full height! The biggest one apparently take 13 grown men to reach around the trunk! If we put the bus we were in on it's end it would be able to fit in the trunk. The also get reeeeally tall! It was pretty cool to see. We then stopped for a cup of tea and headed on to Ninety Mile Beach. The coach we were in was especially designed to drive on the beach and through water and it was pretty cool! As we were driving along the driver, who was pretty funny all day actually, told us that 90 mile beach is actually an official highway, so we could tell our friends that we'd driven on the oldest highway in the world! He said that at high tide the water goes right up to the sand dunes, so it is reformed every day, so we could also tell all our friends that we had also driven on the newest highway in the world! Not bad at all for one day! It was quite funny because there were actually a couple of things buried in the sand as we drove along, including this car pictured above! The next stop was at some massive sand dunes that loads of people trekked up to the top of and sandboarded down on body boards!! It was tipping it down with rain and I didn't want to get freezing cold, wet and sandy, so I didn't go myself. I would have been up for it if it was dry and hot, but I had nothing to change into and was also feeling a bit ill, so I decided to pass.

We then drove up to Cape Reinga itself which is the northern-most point in NZ. Luckily it actually stopped raining at this point. It is quite a significant spiritual place for the Maori people, as it is where they believe their spirit comes when they die to pass on to their homeland. There is a quaint little lighthouse at the top and looking west from it you can see the Pacific Ocean, which is a dark blue. Looking east you can see the Tasman Sea, which is light blue. Looking north you can see where the two meet which is one of the coolest natural things I have seen! The two colours overlap in different places and it is really interesting to see.

After Cape Reinga we drove back down south to a township on the coast where they have a fish and chip shop which has one numerous awards for selling the best fish and chips in New Zealand for dinner. I had battered shark!!! They called it "flake" and it was absolutely delicious! I was so glad I was brave enough to try it - as my family well know I am usually quite a wimp when it comes to trying weird and wonderful new foods, but it was the best thing I'd eaten in a long time! I expected it to be rubbery and horrible but it really was delicious, and it felt good that I was eating shark and not the other way around!!! Haha. Talking of being a wimp, I have done quite a few out-of-the-ordinary-for-Joelle things over here in New Zealand... I guess it brings out the wild side in me!

Anyway, when we eventually got back to Paihia I went straight to bed at 6.30pm and didn't get up until 9am this morning! I was exhausted from the long day out, especially since I'd gone out late the night before with some friends! So I am due to catch the bus back to Auckland in just over an hour's time, then tomorrow it's off to the airport and on to LA..... I am pretty sad to leave NZ to be honest, it has been one of the best places I've been and best times of my life, that is for sure! But I am excited to go and stay with my lovely friend Sally for a few days in LA then on to Canada on Friday to stay with my much-loved brother. I'll certainly have a fair few adventures to tell them of! Good times.

Lots of love

Joelle xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx