Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga

Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga

We decided to fill the week between the Semis and the Finals with something non rugby related and get away from Auckland.  Included in our Kiwi pass was a trip up to the Paihai area of New Zealand.  This is basically the place were Aucklanders have holiday homes and boats!

The view out from the beach

It is a beach resort which comes alive in summer and whose main tourist attractions are dolphin swimming, fishing trips, sunset dinner cruises and water sports.  Being at the end of our NZ trip and having already worn the budget thin we didn’t bother with any of these things but instead we enjoyed some lovely coastal walks, time sitting reading by the beach and more or less just chilling out with a lovely view.  The weather was pretty good while we were here most days there was at least some sunshine which we tried to make the most of.  It was a quiet few days and plenty of films were watched in the hostel but it was nice relaxation before we head back to the chaos of Auckland and finals weekend!!

This area is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and is quite a sacred place historically for the Maori people, way back in the day it was originally made the capital of New Zealand but not for very long!

We did a day tour one day to Cape Reigna which is the most Northerly part of the country where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.  The scenery up here was gorgeous, there is a big lighthouse at the point of joining and one of those cool signs with all the distances to different countries around the world, so we jumped on the bandwagon and took some cheesy touristy pictures!

One of the most fun part of this day trip was our trip along ninety mile beach which is a Highway (yes an official road!!) in Northern NZ.  Its basically like a longer version of the Strand in Portstewart but was made extra adventurous on our drive here.  The driver kept saying ‘’oh man the beach is big today, the beach is very big, this is a big day’’ – a basic translation turned out to be that the tide was coming in a lot quicker than they expected and than had been forecast and basically we were potentially in bother! He radioed his other buses and told them not to come onto the beach so we were in it alone!  It was all going quite well and he thought we had passed the worst bit until we found ourselves in the middle of a ‘sweeper’ wave with another on top of it.  We were sitting at the front and the drivers constant swearing and profuse sweating was not particularly filling me with confidence!! He was gripping the steering wheel and locking it right yet we were still losing the back end of the bus with the pull of the wave...we were barely moving forward, the engine was making pretty unhealthy sounding noises and the water was at window level! ‘Irish tourists swept away to sea on 90 mile beach in a big green bus’!! Thankfully we got through it and once the driver regained composure and the ability to speak he said it was the worst wave he had ever driven through and that he was basically pooing his pants!!!!! Looking back it is kinda funny and a little free add on to the adventure!

initially it didnt seem so bad...

then it got slightly deeper

this was when we were in bother!!!

I love this photo!!

Pleased to survive haha!

On this trip we also went sandboarding which was really good fun.  A massive sand dune which we climbed up (it was tough) and then they gave you bodyboards to come back down on face first!! They say that people get up to 50mph...I certainly didn’t as I used my feet for breaks when it got too quick but it was really good fun, another one of those wee Kiwi extras!  James was slightly less cautious and ended in the mini river/pool at the bottom of the slope!

These few days were our final new places to visit in New Zealand as we head back to Auckland (again) for the Finals weekend before our flight to Australia.  I am due to do a blog on our Auckland rugby experiences but I am saving that for after this weekend (the Bronze and the Final) incase anything exciting or blog worthy happens!!  Until then......enjoy the rugby this weekend.....for once in my life (and to join the rest of the country) I will say Come on the All Blacks!!!!!

xxx