Nick’s world tour

From Waitomo I head to Auckland. Not having had any good reviews of this place by anyone who’s visited, I only spend one evening there where I catch up with some friends. Then day after head up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands.

Having taken all sorts of bus rides on varying vehicles of dodgyness over the past year, it’s one of the nicer ones that choses to break down. So the 4 hour ride takes nearer six and involves three buses. Paihia is a small town next to a beach looking out to the Pacific Ocean and some 114 islands in the bay. There’s a well kept village across the bay called Russel, now full of quaint white wooden buildings, it used to be a rough sea port, full of whale carcasses and the smell from rendering and tanning works; filled with drunken sailors and houses of ill repute. Would have been quite reminiscent of many a West African port town!

I tried to go swimming with the dolphins. Understandably there are strict rules about this, and we spent 3 hours looking for some in flat calm water. When some were sighted, the wind increased and it became too dangerous to swim. Gutted, however there was a baby in the pod so we wouldn’t have been allowed in anyway. Next time maybe.

Having been to the extreme south, I took  a day trip all the way upto Cape Reinga, the most northerly point and where the Tasman and Pacific Oceans meet. Enroute we saw ancient kauri trees (and walked the track they built especially for the Queen when she came for the commonwealth games; they are quite bitter she didn’t actually venture along it!), drove along 90 mile beach, dug for Tuatua shellfish (raw they tasted like sinewy mussels) and went sand boarding which was good fun as ever. Just before the Cape, a car full of Japanese tourists flipped and rolled off the gravel road in front of us, luckily everyone got out. Near the Cape was a beautiful beach which huge waves for some body surfing and at the Cape itself the sea was calm. Stopping on the way home for some fish and chips, a pretty good day all in all.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.