Today was all about seeing as much as we could of the north island in the short time we had, the best way to do this was by plane and you know how we love a plane! The tour driver picked us up at 0620 where we made our way to North shore airport for the first of four flights for the day. He was a chatty fella for that time of the morning but kept us entertained, we reached the small airfield where our Cessna 172 was taxiing over. There was one local who was taking this flight for business purposes which made the flight full, once the plane pulled up our twelve year old pilot James stepped out to greet us and soon we were off.

The flight took us about an hour to get to Kerikeri airfield and was over the central area of the north giving us views of the rolling hills, mountains, farmland and orchards. Shortly after arrival at Kerikeri, we were joined by a Brazilian family of 5 and the pilot for the GA8 Airvan, which made eight, so our next flight was full too! The trip Northbound was via the westcoast of the northland and in particular, 90 mile beach. The views were spectacular and the pilot gave a running commentary on the local area and the history.

After 45minutes we landed on a grass strip in the middle of nowhere and was met by a local guy in a mini bus. Our first stop was to Cape Reinga, the most northerly point of NZ. This is where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea and they literally crash together. There is also the very lovely lighthouse and this area is very sacred to the Maoris as they believe this is where their sole goes before returning to their distance homeland. It was a beautiful setting and one which we had very much been looking forward to visiting.

We then took a short bus journey to Tapotupotu bay where we enjoyed a cup of tea and homemade muffins, baked by the tour guide, whilst admiring the beautiful bay. Our last stop of the far north was to the Giant Sand Dunes, here we all grabbed a plastic sledge and sand surfed down the dunes! Mandy managed to overcome her fear of EVERYTHING and took part, it was fun. We were soon on our way back to the landing strip for our interesting downhill take-off. This time we followed the Eastern coast and the views were as impressive as we had hoped, passing Great Exhibition Bay, the Karikai peninsula, cavil islands before flying over the Bay of Islands. After a wonderful hours scenic flight we were back in Kerikeri Airport near Paihia.

Our last stop of the day was to visit Paihia and the first capital of NZ, Russell. We boarded a small ferry to Russel where we enjoyed lunch and a wander around the historic port. After lunch we returned to Paihia and took a stroll around there before it was time to return to the airport to meet our four seater plane back to Northshore. This time there was a spare seat so for weight and balance Andrew had to sit it the front (it also gave him an opportunity to keep an eye on the very young pilot!) We took the eastern edge of the coast line back down to Northshore, the flight took about 1 hour and by this time we were getting kinda sleepy and tired.

After a short bus journey we were back at our hotel so we changed quickly then headed out for a pizza before returning to the hotel to start the dreaded packing.