07/03/09

We got up and drove to Harrisons Cape Runner tours. Our first stop was the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, where we got to see some giant logs that had been dug up from the land after being buried head first during a Tsunami over a Km high. One of the trees was so big they had carved a staircase through the middle of it. There were also loads of chainsaw carvings from the competitions they had held there. We stopped off at a random beach beacuse there was white sand there, the weather was s*** and we've seen white sand beaches before so we weren't really in to it, we did get the chance to see a middle aged woman completely stack it right on her side in the sand! Helen couldn't stop laughing, well funny. On the way to the next stop we heard about a million facts from our tour guide about gum trees and how people were worked to the bone to harvest them. He then went on to explain where his friend John lived and showed us the most northern pub in the country, we were all throroughly bored of gum tree facts by the time we arrived at Mount Camel. We arrived at Cape Reinga where the sun came out so we walked around to the lighthouse on the tip and got to see the Tasman sea meet the Pacific. You could see the two seas crashing in to each other and creating huge waves.

We had a quick stop for lunch, and I mean quick, we got out of the bus, had a scone and a couple of breakfast bars and we were ordered back on the bus. The next stop was the sand dunes where we all got the chance to try sand tobogganing. Such an effort walking to the top of the dune but totally worth it. My first attempt down the dune wasn't very successful, the cord got stuck under the toboggan and caused me to slide to the left and flip over, I landed back in it though and managed to continue down the slope. We all had a couple of goes, when the girls went down they seemed to put their feet into the sand causing it all to fly up in to their faces and all over their crotches. We drove down 90 mile beach on the way back and saw a few people still taking part in the fishing competition. We stopped off so I went for a swim to get as much of the sand off me as possible. When we got back we drove to a place called Kawakawa and stopped off in a car park. We went for a wander around town, bit of a ghost town, but at least they had 24 hour toilets. They also had some really swanky toilets designed out of glass bottles by some guy. Burns and I played a bit of frisbee and the girls cooked pasta pesto while Pat picked up some garlic bread.