Day 3 (Mon. April 25th)
On Monday, we woke up early to catch our bus up to the Bay of Islands. Camille and I booked a three-day trip with a company called Kiwi Experience that provides cool sightseeing trips for 18-25 year olds backpacking and traveling. They provide your transportation all over New Zealand and help you book accommodations and activities wherever you go. We decided to go to the Bay of Islands – an area of TONS of islands almost at the northernmost point of the north island of New Zealand. It’s beautiful! It poured rain for the entire bus ride, but the countryside was so incredibly green that despite the storm, I couldn’t help but stare in awe out the window. We arrived in Paihia (pie-ee-uh) around noon and once Camille and I problem-solved a huge transportation miscommunication fiasco for our departure on Wednesday, we took off on a long walk with our new friend Carrie. She was on our bus up to the bay and asked to come walk with us. She was really cool. She had just finished a year working for BBC and was heading to work for Al Jazeera at the end of her trip. It was really interesting to hear her story. I think that’s been one of my favorite parts of traveling – meeting so many interesting people. Anyway, we set off during a short break in the rain, but don’t worry, it resumed its steady downpour once we’d reached the point when I no longer could go back to get my raincoatJ. We followed a walking trail around an inlet, through a sanctuary forest, and eventually found Haruru falls. As we ventured through the forest, we eventually came to a cool bridge across the inlet that led us to an even cooler bridge through a mangrove forest! For those that don’t know mangroves are a really interesting kind of tree that lives in swamp areas in Australia… and apparently New Zealand. Their roots grow up out of the water to get air, but the actual tree sits in water. It’s cool. Anyway, the falls were beautiful and I realized that it was the perfect place to walk to in the rain because they don’t care if they’re wet, so I tried to not care that I was wet too. Our walk ended up being about 10 miles. It was long and wet, but still fun and very beautiful. After we’d gotten back and sufficiently dried off, Camille and I went down to the wharf and sat at a little café and just talked while I sipped on a coffee. Later, we went back to the hostel for a big BBQ that the hostel put on. It was really delicious! I love BBQs… especially the way they do them here. Pretty much everyone from the hostel went to the BBQ and it was fun socializing and making more friends, but then I realized how tired I was and called it a night pretty earlyJ.
Day 4 (Tues. April 26th)
On Tuesday, Camille and I woke up early again to catch the bus for our day trip up the North coast. Our first stop was a Kauri forest (pronounced like cordy). The trees are massive! They can grow to be 4000 years old, although the ones we saw were estimated to be barely 1000 years old. The oldest Kauri tree is in a different area of the North Island and it is called Tane Mahuta (tah-une-eh mah-hoot-ah) by the Maori people. It means “God of the Forest”… I thought that was cool. After the Kauri forest, we drove down Highway 1A to some sand dunes. Oh, by the way, Highway 1A is also referred to as “Ninety Mile Beach”… yes, their beach is a highway! It was so strange to drive on sand, but mostly just coolJ. We made it to the dunes, which were huge! The driver parked and we all grabbed the body boards and started trekking up the side of the biggest dune. And then it was time to lay down face first on your board and do your best not to dieJ. Seriously, it was scary, but such a rush and really fun! After scraping sand off every surface of my body, I boarded the bus and we continued to the most precious, secluded beach for lunch. It was beautiful, quiet and perfect. I could have stayed there all day, but we were given about 20 minutes to enjoy it and then we were off again. Our next stop was Cape Reinga – the northernmost point on the North Island and where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. It was incredible! The water was so pure and the force that exploded in each wave was beyond words. The two bodies of water are in constant opposition, yet somehow it’s beautiful. It made me think about ancient mythology and how I could definitely understand the cultural significance that Cape Reinga has for the Maori culture. There is a single tree that sticks out of the side of cliff along the point and the Maori believe that this tree is where the souls of their dead go to make the journey back to the sea and the afterlife. The tree has been there for as long as the Maori peoples’ oral history goes back and even though those trees typically flower every December, that specific tree has never been known to blossom. Maori people still make the pilgrimage to Cape Reinga to wish their departed off and to mourn loss. It is a deeply spiritual and powerful place. After that stop, we went to a Kauri wood shop. This place was really neat! A farmer a few years ago was trying to build a fence and encountered something really hard when he was putting the posts in the ground. He dug around the area and realized it was a huge tree!... a Kauri tree. He dug around a bit more and discovered that a forest had been buried under his land. Because of the swamp-like conditions, the wood had been perfectly persevered. After some investigation, it was discovered that a huge tsunami had knocked down the entire forest and buried it… 40,000 years ago! The forest of preserved Kauri wood is being harvested and this shop that we stopped at makes furniture and other cool trinkets out of the crop. It was super impressive! There was the coolest spiral staircase that I have ever seen in my life, carved out of the trunk of a piece of the biggest Kauri harvested. It was so impressive! After the woodshop, we went to Mongonui (mong-ug-new-ee) for a fish and chips dinner. The fish shop we ate at is famous within New Zealand for having the best fish and chips… I fully agree!! Their secret is that they have their own boat and catch all the fish they serve daily. When we arrived at 5pm, we ate the fish that had been brought in from the boat at 4pm. It was SO fresh and SO delicious! Also, we sat overlooking the harbor where the fish was caught and watched the sunset while we ate. It was perfect. That moment is one of my favorites from the entire trip. After we finished eating we loaded the bus again. The sun finished setting as we drove – it was so peaceful and beautiful. Once we got back, Camille and I decided that we wanted ice cream so we went to the small store in town and bought ice cream bars and then went down to the beach and ate them and gazed at the stars. They were so bright! And I saw the Milky Way!! It was so cool. After we’d enjoyed the night sky for a while, we went back to the hostel and checked emails, showered, packed and went to bed.
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