BootsnAll Travel Network



New Year etc

We got the bus to Kaitaia and it quickly became apparent that without a car you couldn’t get to any of the places of interest in the area. We had booked a trip up 90 mile beach for the next day but had another two days booked at the hostel. We tried to hire a car but they wanted to charge us $160 for 2 days and there was only one bike for hire in the town. The only thing of any interest in the town was a small museum – of which more later.
But we went on our trip to Cape Reigna via 90 mile beach on 28th Dec. The tide was coming in so we had to go quite fast up the beach which is actually just under 100km long. Lots of coaches go up the beach and also 4WDs. The sand in the middle of the beach is hard but towards the top end it becomes soft and vehicles can get stuck. We passed one coach that was stuck. The beach was used for attempts at the world land speed record years ago. At the top end of the beach there were huge dunes and they carry sledges on the bus so that you can slide down them. We went down a dune called Psycho Hill – very fast indeed. Screamed all the way!Then we headed off to a beach for lunch. After that we drove up to Cape Reigna, the most northerly point of NZ. There is a lighthouse there and great views out across the ocean where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet. On the way back to Kaitai we stopped for huge ice creams and then went to place called the Ancient Kauri Kingdom. Way back most of the area was covered with Kauri trees and they were cleared so that the land could be used for agriculture. But a lot of trees were buried in swamps between 30 – 50,000 years ago and were preserved there – fossilised really I suppose. They are dug up and used to make furniture, bowls, ornaments etc etc which are very expensive. I bought a Xmas tree decoration.
Back at the hostel we managed to change our bus from Monday to Sunday so that we would only have one day in Kaitaia. The next day we went to the museum which had an interesting exhibit about the gum diggers. The kauri trees secrete gum to protect themselves when they get damaged and it drips down into the ground where over the years it solidifies so that it looks like amber. The Maori used to use it for various things including tattooing. But it was dug up in commercial quantities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, principally by immigrants from Dalmatia. It was exported to Europe where it was used for varnishes, paints etc until about the 1950s when alternatives were developed. There was also a huge anchor from a French ship called the St Jean Baptiste. The French had come to the South Pacific to establish trading oppportunities but they had also heard about NZ and wanted to claim it for France. However, they were beaten to it by only a couple of days by Capt Cook, bless him- otherwise we might have needed a French phrasebook to come to NZ!
We tried to get our hair cut but of the 4 hairdressers in town, 3 were shut and the other had no free appointments. Katie went to try and use the Internet but they closed at lunchtime. A bit of a dead loss really. By the evening we were both a bit fed up! However, we got back to Auckland the following day.
I have had to reappraise Auckland. It is not so bad as I originally thought. We booked in at the YHA rather than the dreaded Nomad’s Fat Camel and got a twin room instead of a dorm because they didn’t have any dorm beds left. On New Year’s Eve we caught the ferry across to Waiheke Island which takes about half an hour or so. It was very busy because it is the place to go for New Year apparently. We had a bus trip round the island to start with. There are a lot of holiday homes there and property is extremely pricey. The beaches are great and there is a big arty crafty community as well – a bit like Cornwall I thought in character. We had a good walk along the coast with stunning scenery and then went down onto a beach where we had a swim before proceeding along the coast back to the ferry. It was a most enjoyable day out. In the evening we went down to the centre of Auckland where there were free bands performing but we thought they were awful so we went to the pub! Fire works went off at midnight from the Sky Tower which is the tallest structure in the Southern Hemispere -not much competition really. I had to do a solo performance of Auld Lang Syne because Katie didn’t know the words and everyone sitting near us was from Japan!
The next day we did the Coast to Coast walk which is about 16km and takes you from one side of NZ to the other. It was very pleasant, mostly through parks and included the ascent of two small volcanic hills, Mount Eden and One Tree Hill. Also it passes the museum where there was a very good exhibition about Charles Darwin. So we had deep intellectual discussions about evolution as we walked along!
The next day we went on the ferry again to Rangitoto Island. It erupted out of the sea only 600 years ago so is very recent in geological terms. You can climb up to the summit of the volcano and walk round the crater. The island is now quite well vegetated and there are lots of NZ Xmas trees there which have red flowers on at this time of the year. We then walked along to a beach and had lunch and a swim before taking the coastal route back to the ferry. Once back at the ferry we had a bit of time to wait so I had another swim to cool off. In the evening we went to the cinema and saw “The Kite Runner”.
Yesterday we went back to the museum as we had only looked at the Darwin exhibition and none of the other stuff. Then we had our hair cut at last so we looked very glamorous (?) when we went out for a curry last night to celebrate our last night in NZ.
We fly to Chile this afternoon at 5.25pm and arrive earlier this morning at about 11.30am. So we are in the air for about 12 hours and arrive before we set off ! Amazing. We will of course be relying on Katie’s Spanish from now on – HELP!

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