I got up at 6:30am ready to catch the bus at 7:20. I walked to the end of the road and saw the green Kiwi bus coming. The driver welcomed me on board, I found a seat and sat down. There were 8 others on the bus, 2 girls 5 lads and a man. The driver was called Jared. We stopped for a drink and toilet break before arriving in Paihiaat the Bay of Islands. It was lunch time. We booked our activites and went to the supermarket to buy some food. That evening we had the BBQ on offer at the hostel, a few drinks and then went to bed.

The next day we were all going on a day trip to Cape Reinga, the most northerly point of New Zealand. The bus picked us up at 7:15am. On the way we stopped at a forest to see some Kauri trees. Some were really big with massive thick trunks. After that we continued our drive north which involved driving along 90 mile beach. The coach actually drove along the beach right next to the sea. We passed a seal before stopping to see if we could catch any shellfish called Pipi. The driver and a few helpers went into the sea with a bucket. The rest of us just took photos. After 10 minutes the driver came back with a full bucket. We could try the shellfish if we wanted, but I didnt. We carried on along the beach, saw the hole in the rock and we stopped so the boys could get out and help push a car stuck in the sand. We then turned off the beach into the dunes where we found a spot to do sandboarding. This time we had body boards and had to climb up the dune to start. The climb was quite hard work as we went quite high. At the top I layed down on the board and pushed off. I went down really fast. a lot faster than in Peru and it was a lot longer. At the bottom I did role off the side as I didnt want to go in the river at the bottom. Some of the boys did keep going and skimmed across the river and landed on the other side. I decided to have a go at standing up on the board so I went to a small slope. On my first attempt I lasted 3 or 4 seconds before falling off backwards. The second time I lasted a lot longer but ended up face first in the sand! Also Michelle caught it on video! (You've Been Framed here I come) After about 45 minutes we got back on the bus and drove to Cape Reinga. We walked down to the lighthouse at the edge of a cliff. There you could see where the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea meet. The waters were two different colour blues. We took pictures before walking back up the hill to the bus. We ate lunch on the bus and stopped to see some wood carving in thousand year old wood dug up from underground. There was also a staircase carved inside a tree trunk. We carried on back to the hostel but stopped for some award winning fish & chips on the way. That night it was quiz night in the hostel bar. We entered and came 5th out of 9. It was a really good night.

The next morning Me, Mike, Ray, Rob and Aaron went on the dolphin cruise around the Bay of Islands. We sat upstairs on the boat on the front row so we had a really good view. We stopped at a few islands to deliver mail and newspapers. All the time we were looking for dolphins and marine animals. We then left the bay and sailed out into the Pacific Ocean to see the hole in the rock (a different one to the day before) The rock had a hole like a tunnel going through it. The hole was just big enough for the boat to fit through. We sailed through before turning around and going back the way we came. We had'nt seen any sign of dolphins. The captain said it was probably because the day before they had spotted whales and they would have scared the dolphins away. There was no sign of any whales either. On the way back we stopped off on an island for 1 hour. There a man wearing a feathered cape told us about Captain James Cook and the history of the Bay of Islands. It was very interesting. We also stopped at Russell on the way back for an hour. Russell was the main town years ago. After the cruise we chilled out in the hostel common room.

The next day we did a coastal walk and caught the bus back to Auckland.