11th January (Week Twenty-Eight)

Woke up to a gorgeous morning, the sun is shining - yipee!! Set off to the Cape Reinga the most Northerly point of the North Island. Just before heading to the Cape we stopped at Ninety Mile beach for a look, we were not alone lots of buses passed us on the sand heading along the massive stretch. (Our old car won´t make it on the sand so got back into the car and onto the main road to Cape Reinga) The view was outstanding, blue skies, beaches stretching out for miles and no sign of rain. Set off again for a picnic in one of the many bays along the North coast and decided to take one last dip in the sea in New Zealand before we left NZ for South America.

Headed back down towards Auckland passing through Waipoua National park for a look at ´Tane Mahuta´the largest (tallest) Kauri tree in New Zealand which is approx 12 thousand years old. It was massive, trying to take a picture to express how big it was didn´t really work, in the pictures it just look like a small tree in comparison to how huge it really was. Set up camp at the Waipoua national park. This area is known for Kiwi´s and during the night we could both hear them calling in the darkness but once Paul went out with a touch they were no where to be seen! Oh well it was a slim chance.

12th January 2007

Headed off from the national park pretty early and ventured to see another big kauri tree the largest in width also approx 12 thousand years old. Yet again it was huge!! Managed to take a picture with Paul in it which actually shows the scale of the tree. Set off on a long trip down from the Northland to Auckland. Caught a ferry across the water and met Jeff the ferry conductor from Tredegar, he still had the accent after 25 years. Drove into Auckland and stayed at the YHA International, a very tall nondescript hostel with no character but at least it was in the city centre. Spent the rest of the day hunting around form a postal shop to send some of our belongings home. Finally at 4:30 (cutting it close as the shop closed at 5:00) managed to squeeze some of our stuff into a relatively small box to send home - cost about 150 British pounds.

13th January 2007

Packed up the car once again and headed to another backpackers in a swanky suburb just outside Auckland called Ponsonby, very nice. Stayed at the Brown Kiwi a very hip, friendly place - would recommend staying there!! Posted some notices up at other hostels trying to sell the car as we only have two days to sell Alice (ahhhhhhhh).