Today we got ready for a 9:00 tour bus. After we got on the bus we went and picked up other tourists from different motels. Then we drove to the Kauri Kingdom where they sell kauri sculptures. At the back of the room there was a big kauri tree that had been cut down and placed there. In fact, there was a staircase carved inside it! On the main floor there was a couch made of kauri wood, but it had a few holes in it so it didn't look too comfortable. Then, when we got back on the road, we drove through the second largest radiata pine forest in New Zealand. The tour bus drove to a museum where there were emus outside. We went to the emu cage and one emu was nipping at dad's buttons. I pulled a handful of long grass and fed the grass to the emus and collected some feathers off the ground. I got an ice cream at the shop and we waited for the tour bus to leave. 

The tour bus took us up to Cape Reinga and we walked to the lighthouse. We walked up a hill to see the 'Meeting of the Oceans' where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean crash together. The ocean was a nice blue and you could see the waves in one spot splashing together with the wind spraying off the waves. If was very peaceful and quiet on the hill. The tour bus took us to a beach for lunch which they provided. I started to build a sandcastle but the tour bus was going to leave. 

 We went to a stream, drove down halfway and the bus driver gave us toboggans and told us to slide down the sand dunes! It was like sliding on snow but we were sliding on sand. You had to keep your mouth closed. After everyone had gone sand tobogganing we drove the rest of the way down the stream. The bus drove onto 90-Mile Beach. We stopped at a car that had flipped over on the beach and was stuck in the sand. Then we drove back to the motel and I went back and forth between a very cold pool and a hot tub.