Hello from the big NZ city of Auckland! Here's the next installment of our tales from another land, so I shall carry on from where Em left off a few days ago...

On the 15th June, we woke up bright and early to catch the bus from Paihia to take us on a day trip up to Cape Reinga, the most Northerly reach of New Zealand. But this wasn't any ordinary bus, not our usual Kiwi Experience coach. This was a special one, a bumper macho designed to drive along sand to take us along the Ninety Mile Beach to reach the Cape. (This is name is perhaps slightly misleading, however, as the beach is in fact only aorund 55 miles long...the mistake is said to have been made by a bunch of missionairies travelling the length of the beach on horseback; considering that they believed their horses could achieve an average of 30 miles a day and the journey took them 3, simple sums concluded that they had trekked 90 miles. It seems they didn't consider that the stamina of their steeds was perhaps not quite what they imagined, but the name just sorta stuck - it does sound slightly more impressive!).

Our first stop on the trip was at an endangered Kauri forest, these trees being the largest species in the country. Due to the early European settlers being too greedy and massively exploiting these huge trees for their valuable properties, they now have to be protected. And they really are pretty impressive - it took 8 of us to link our hands comfortably around their trunks!

We then travelled on right up to the lighthouse at Cape Reinga, the place where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. The Maori's believe this is the place where the spirits of their dead depart our mortal world and enter the uinderworld; our Maori bus driver even sang a lament to entice them to rise up to meet us - we weren't quite so sure we wanted experience one of these encounters however...! We sat on the beach to eat our lunch with the girls from the hostel who are new to the Kiwi bus, so we gave them a good run-down of what is involved and all of the great things they have to come! The weather really demonstrated why it's called the "Winterless North", it was a gorgeous day :)

Then came the fun part: after a dodgy drive over the quicksand stream (skillfully negotiated by our experienced driver!) we reached the sand dunes - we were going sandboarding, baby! After a quick demonstation on how to ride the boards and prevent ourselves from breaking our necks (!), we struggled up the dunes with our boogie boards, lay down face first ontp them and let ourselves go! We didn't half pick up speed down the slopes; people often reach up to 60kph! A quick digging in of the feet towards the bottom prevented a dip in the river at below...It was great fun but 4/5 trips up the dunes was enough for most - the dunes were pretty steep! A drive along the beach followed, often treversing in and out of the surf as the waves flowed in around our big bus. The beach is now a state highway so the rules of the road still apply!

The last stop on our trip was to the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, a showhouse displaying impressive carvings and sculptures created using the Kauri wood. By far the best was a whole spiral staircase carved up the INSIDE of the trunk of a tree connecting the 2 floors! Treated to some good ol' fish and chips on our return, we got back to the hostel in Paihia to take part in the bar quiz with the girls - let's say we didn't do quite so well in this one as the last...!

Wednesday took us on the Hole in the Rock Boat Cruise taking us around the waters of the Bay of Islands made up of 144 in total ranging in size. Even sunnier and warmer than the previous day (is it really winter?), the boat made a few stops en route to various islands, dropping off mail to these often very secluded islands, some with only a handful of residences on, many retirement or holday homes in these stunningly beautiful locations surrounded by crystal blue waters. You could almost imagine you were in the caribbean!

But by far the highlight of this trip were the dolphins. Unlike our unsuccessful dolphin watching ride in Kaikoura on the South island, we were treated to the presence of a large pod of Bottlenose dolphins working together to feed on a shoal of fish. Unfortunately, as was originally intended, we were unable to swim with them as strict conservation rules prohibit people form entering the water whilst they were feeding. However, we were not left disappointed; they were amazing to watch, leaping above the surface and swimming around the boat, often coming so close as to touch the sides. It was so amazing to see these wild animals so close. Better yet, at one point they began to leap playfully in the surf behind our speeding boat, jumping out of the crashing water towards us! We got some cracking pics :) My love of dolphins has stepped up a level! Throughout the journey the captain allowed us into his cabin to chat and we became his "glamorous assistants" for the day :) Once we reached the cruises namesake, a huge wave-eroded hole in the rock, the captain manouvered our huge vessel carefully through several times (it was a bit of a dodgy squeeze!) before we headed back ino the Bay.

The next day we departed the beautiful North back down to Auckland again, very excited to be meeting with our amazing family friends, the Wild Harpers, who moved out here 4 years ago and who we were to be staying with for the next few days :D Paul picked us up from the hostel to take us back to their place, stopping briefly off at the school disco to give the kids, Bryoni and Ethan, huuuuuge hugs and kisses before meeting Juliet in the pub. It was so good to see them all again after all this time and we had great fun catching up with our adventures and their new life in NZ since they moved out! They also have a new addition, Zoe, a black labrador pup who was given to Bryoni as a surprise pressie, and she's so cute.

On Friday, Juliet took us for a drive around to show us a bit of the city, catching some goregous views over the area before taking a stroll along the beach. Once we'd picked Ethan up from his primary school, we baked some delicious little gingernut biscuits when we returned before settling down to watch Sherlock Holmes once the kids had trotted off to bed. The next day we had a bright and early start to watch Bryoni play a hockey match with her school team, winning 6-0! Little Miss Speedy-Legs played really well, even scoring one herself :) As it was a clear day, we all piled into the car, dog and all, to see the local gannet colony on the coast which we all found pretty hilarious; out of the thousands that usually inhabit this area, there was just one solitary bird sitting on its lonesome on the rock! Bless.

Afterwards we made our way along a gorgeous forest walk, running up and down small black sand dunes and racing pinecones down the stream. After a much needed hot choc and cake in a local cafe, we headed back to Fajitas and a movie to relax with them all. (After Juliet fell asleep she was sneakily buried in Toy Story memorabilia, helmet on and all!Hilarious photos produced ;) ). We had a great day today: Em and I helped Bryoni make a cake for Paul's birthday tomorrow, an impressive 3 tiered pink, purple and blue creation that was presented to the very excited blindfolded birthday boy! As the weather outside wasn't so great, we stayed inside to have a family games night (Ethan seems to have gotten very good at the game Cheat...!). This was followed by a good ol' comedy film and some good ol' group photos, dog and all, to commemorate our fab stay with this fab family! It's been so great to see them all and we're going to miss them when we leave! We have, however, been invited to take up the 2 spare seats in their campervan trip down in Queenstown next week, so if the Kiwi bus goes to pot, you know where we'll be!!

We're back on the Kiwi bus tomorrow heading up to Mercury Bay on the Northern coast, so hot water beach Cathedral Cove, here we come!

Much love, the Bright Travellers Ltd.
xxxx