Hello Hello

Just back from New Zealand and had a fantastic trip up North. Had enjoyable Christmas and then on St Stephens Day we travelled to Paihia, the beach wasn't that pretty but we had a great night at a local bar Salty and I won a half price para sailing trip! On the 27th Dec we went to Russell and visited some beautiful beaches, Takepa point beach and Long beach, where Captain Cook anchorage is.

Then on the 28th we went para sailing, the highest one in NZ 1200 feet, amazing. We stopped off at Keri Keri, Cooper beach ( another beautiful beach, Pohutukawa trees line it). The scenery on this drive was lovely and reminded me of the west of Ireland and there is a lot more Maori up North. We drove a mile on Ninety mile beach, you drive the whole 99 miles at 100 km per hour! We arrived at our rural hostel before dinner and went for a swim at beautiful, deserted beach- Henderson Bay beach!

The next day we travelled up to the top of New Zealand, Cape Reinga where the Tasman and Pacific sea met. On the way to Cape we stop off at another fantastic beach, Rarawa beach and then went sand surfing on Silca sand, very scary at the top but fun going down. At Cape Reinga we met one of the German guys we met the night before, he had cycled all the way from Auckland to Cape Reinga, so we gave him a lift to the nearest town, Katiata. We then made our way to Kaihu Farm hostel, we drove throught the foggy Waipoua forest were all the Kauri trees are. The next morning we woke up to beautiful farm views and lovely hosts. First stop for the day was Tronson Kauri Park, primary forest it has never been felled and next stop was Tane Muhuta at the Waipoua forest, the biggest Kauri tree in the world.

We made our way back to Auckland and stopped off at cafe that was made out of a ship, Eutopia at Kaiwaka, very cool. We did a total of 1250 km all up.

We then spent a great New Years Eve at Piha beach with the Finn's.

Thats all for the moment, off to Byron Bay in a week with my friend Julie.

Photos up soon.

Niamh x x x