Northland: Days 3 & 4, Last of Auckland

Saturday was a chill day; we got to sleep in and shop.  We hoped for etter weather in the afternoon to go to the beach, but no such luck.  In the evening we went to Catholic mass, which was a cool experience.  More chilling and hanging out.

 

We went to church on Sunday which was actually fast sunday instead of conference since they watch conference delayed in NZ.  In the afternoon we drove up to Waitangi for a picnic lunch, which was very nice.  We actually went to a Waitangi historical center where we got to see where the treaty was actually signed and it was a fascinating place.  Our tour guide sure knew her stuff.  A well-spent afternoon.  Came back and watched a couple of good movies.

We made our way home on Monday and basically drove the whole day.

We had a few days left in Auckland to do some last-minute things before officially finishing the program on Friday.  We learned how to weave flax, bought some last minute souveneirs, and hiked Rangitoto.  Rangitoto was a particularly fun activity because we went early in the morning for the hike, which was a nice hike, and spent the afternoon doing last-minute shopping in the city.  I'm glad we got to do the hike and I feel it was a well-spent morning.  It was hard to believe that it was the last time for us seeing a lot of the people we've spent every day with since January!  We had a get-together the night previous and fortunately we got to see James again, and he's such a dear, he got us matching lava lavas and hats with our initials.  It was a great ending to our time in Auckland.  We got everything packed up and ready to go for our trip to Australia.

Northland: Days 1 & 2

We departed for the northland on Thursday morning, the 1st of April.  It was a long, scenic drive up to Paihia, where we were staying.  We had reservations at a nice motel and quickly dropped our bags to catch the last boat out to the hole in the rock.  I should mention it was a speed boat and it was a treat to go so fast out on the open ocean and do some tricks like really riding the water!  It was spectacularly beautiful out there and I'm glad we rushed to catch that boat!

The next day we had a full day.  We started with a lot of driving to Cape Reinga, the northern-most tip of NZ.  Also spectacularly beautiful!  This is where the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea meet, which is similar to what we saw when we were in the South Island.  So cool!  After that, we had a picnic lunch at the bay and then went sliding down these massive sand dunes.  It was pretty fun because we had the dunes all to ourself where we were, but boy was it a hike getting up!  We went down on boogie boards and if that dune wasn't so high, I would've done it again and again...

After that, we drove the 90 Mile Beach.  It's exactly what it sounds like: a long stretch of beach.  Very nice.  We stopped at a kauri wood shop, which is a beautiful native NZ wood.  It's like the koa wood of NZ.  It's also ridiculously expensive, so none of you will be receiving anything kauri.

To top off a great day, we had dinner at a really, really great fish and chips place.  By far the best fish and chips I ever had in my life!  The perfect ending to a great day.