Day 99

The main reason we wanted to stop in Whangarei was to see the falls. So we got up a bit earlier to get the bus up there. We took a short walk and heard the sound of the falls before seeing them.

The walk took us over the river at the top and you couldn't really appreciate how far down it was so we followed the walk around to a lookout at the bottom of the falls, and we could see how spectacular it was.

The falls are 28m high and when the water hit the river it sent up a trail of mist. We stopped for an hour to admire the beauty and get some snaps. We were lucky enough to even see a rainbow.

Just as we finished the clouds opened and we found refuge under a tree until the bus arrived.

We had booked to leave at 1430 to Rotorua with a change over at Auckland. We made it to Auckland ok but minutes before we were due to board the coach to Rotorua the driver informed us that one of the major roads had been closed due to snow and ice so we couldn't travel. The unhelpful desk were of no help and we were left with no accomodation and no where to go. We managed to find a room for the night but we had to pay over the odds. The one upside is that we managed to catch the Tri Nations Rugby match between New Zealand and South Africa. The atmosphere even in the hostel was an experience as the Kiwi's are really passionate about their rugby.