Day 1

We left Auckland Monday morning at 6.50am, heading off to the Bay of Islands. As you can imagine we were all still half a sleep adn not impressed with the early start!!

Once everyone was on the bus we headed out over the Harbour Bridge follwing the Hibiscus Coast before arriving in Warworth for breakfast. After breakfast we travelled through Whangarei and then on to the Bay of Islands, Paihia. We arrived at 12.15pm......i know another 5hour bus journey!!! On the bus we arranged accomandation for the two nights and an activitie for that day. Its so easy on the Kiwi they book everything for you. The whole coach stayed at Base, which is a really nice chilled out Hostel with a swimming pool and hot tub!! Once we dumped our bags we headed off in to the town to go and get on our Excitor, the trip we booked. The Excitotr is a high speed adventure that took us around the Bay of Islands at a very high speed. Apprerently we went upto 1600p!!It was a right laugh, we felt like we were on a roller coaster at times going over the huge waves!! We went through the 'Hole in the Rock' which was a little scary, the waves were massive going through there, it felt like the boat was gonna go over at times. The guy was saying sometimes you cant go through there as the waves are upto the top sometimes!! On the way back from the Hole in the Rock we all got absolutly soaked. I got the worst at times as i sat on the edge!! And the silly clothing wasn't that good as we still got underneath!! After about 90minutes of being on it they then dropped us off at Russell, which was a small island. It was a lovely place with nice views, but we only stayed on there for about 45mins as there was nothing to do, so we just had a cake and a drink!! After our cake we then got the ferry back so we could get ready for the BBQ the hostel was having!

Once we were dry and changed we headed down for our BBQ and free beer. The BBQ was really nice and we got chatting to other people on our bus which was nice. After a few beers though we headed for bed as we were so tired and we had a 7.15m pick up in the morning. And we didnt want to be getting on that with a hangover!!

Day 2

So Tuesday 5th Feb we all piled onto the big yellow bus bright and early. We were heading up to the Cape Reinga for a jam packed day. Our first stop was at the Puketi Kauri Forest to check out some majestic trees that were 2000years old. In other words it ws aother BIG TREE!! What is it with big trees around this side of the world!! :-) After looking at the amazing tree we then headed to the top of Cape Reigna (Te Rerenga Wairua), you can see where the two oceans meet (Tasman and Pacific) which is really cool and the views are spectacular. We got some really good photos here. We then headed to Taputaputa Bay where we stopped off for luch, it was well nice sitting having lunch looking out on the sea! Aftre lunch we then cruised upto Ninety Mile Beach where we did sandboarding. Aparrently they are the biggest sand dunes in the country!! Me and Loz did the boarding, Claie didnt like in Fraser so didnt want to tackle this huge one!! So we left her to be camera women!! The sandboarding was quality it was loads better being that high up we went really fast. Though it was a right mission getting up the the top as you will see from the photos!! After the boarding we then drove along Ninety Mile Beach also dipping our feet in the Tasmin Sea.

After all our siteseeing and activites we then headed South via the East Coast stopping at the Fish & Chip shop. We didnt have chips though as we are being good now!! After food we then had an hours journey back to Paihia. We had an awesome day but were very tired so we just had dinner, used the net and watched telly before going to bed.

Day 3

Today its Waitangi Day. This is when the mauri's signed the peace treaty with us english folk wayyyy bak in the day, so there are going to be loads of celebrations in the town so were going to go and check them out. Its now 9.00am so im going to go and wake Loz and Claire up so we can check out and wonder into town!!

Ill update later on with how our day has gone!

Well not long been back from Waitangi Day. Not got much to report really, there were loads of stalls with clothes etc on them. It was really busy though! Were now just waiting for the bus to pick us up and take us back to Auckland where we will be staying at Kate's again for one more night before heading off to Mercury Bay.

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