Katie:

We left Auckland on our first Kiwi Experience bus to Pahia in The Bay of Islands. We arrived at Pahia in the early afternoon and went for a walk around the area. We made use of the free bike hire at the hostel & went for a ride around the local area and along the beach front- the bikes were quite fun as they had no gears & you had to pedal backwards to brake! We rode back to the hostel just before it poured down with rain & spent the rest of the evening being lazy & watching movies at the hostel.

The following day we took a day trip to Cape Reinga - the most northerly point in NZ. We boarded the bus at 7am and headed north. From Pahia we passed through the farming town of Kerikeri before stopping at Puketi Kauri forest to see New Zealand's oldest trees of over a 1000 years old. From there we continued driving to Waipapakauri to have breakfast before heading to the Cape. We drove up to the Cape and walked to the top- from the top you can see the meeting of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The Cape is surrounded by huge dunes making the views and landscapes amazing. On top of the Cape (165m above sea level) is the Cape Lighthouse. After leaving the extremely wet & windy Cape we headed towards the sand dunes where we sandboarded down them. They were so high but it was a fun & scary experience. Arber managed to go five times which is quite an achievement considering the steep walk to the top. After our sandboarding we drove down Ninety Mile Beach a little close to high tide as we had to drive through the waves. On our return journey to Pahia we stopped of at Mangonui Harbour to have some New Zealand 'fush & chups'.!

We checked out of the Pipi Patch hostel at 10am and had a lovely breakfast outside in the sunshine before heading back to Auckland.

Arber:

This sleepy little town had a lot of charm to it and the bike ride was fun they made me feel like we were riding choppers! - the day trip was lots of fun and the reason i had to go five time was because i wanted a picture of me showing off to be honest and had to get the timing right with the camera in the end we got the shot!! The trees we visted were amazing and dwarfed us completly where we had breakfast they had a entire stairwell carved into a trunk!!