So we are now in the north island of New Zealand, which is very different to the south - it rains a lot more! The scenery is not as spectacular as the south but still pretty nice - very green. The first few days there we spent travelling up towards the north on the magic bus. We stopped in Napier for 2 nights (rained so didn't do much), Lake Taupo for 1 night then Rororua for 2 nights. On the way to Rotorua we visited Wai O Tapu thermal mud area which is basically natural boiling pools of mud - that was pretty smelly, bit like rotting eggs but interesting to watch.
We spent a few hours in the town of Waitomo walking around the caves, at some points the roof of the caves were littered with glow-worms, so tiny but very bright.
Paihia or The Bay of Islands was another one of our favourite places. Here we took a bus trip to Cape Reinga which is the most northern point of New Zealand. We walked to the lighthouse where we could see where the Tasman sea and the Pacific ocean meet. The Tasman sea was rough and lighter in colour while the Pacific ocean was very calm and darker in colour, we could see the meeting points in the water, it was pretty incredible and the views were beautiful. From there we headed along 90 mile beach in the bus until we reached the sand dunes where we embarked on a bit of sand boarding! Walking up the dune was the hardest part as it was so steep and high, it was fantastic fun whizzing down the dune at lightening speed. The first time I sand boarded I ended up flying across the Te Paki stream at the bottom of the dune and bounced off my board into the stream, covered in sand and water. It was great fun! Tracey took the safe option and took photos instead.
Our last day in Paihia we took a boat cruise through the Bay of Islands - pretty choppy ride that day with a few people turning a bit green around the gills! We meandered around 11 of the islands before heading to Motukokako island (Hole in the rock) which the boat goes through. There we saw a few seals soaking up the sun. We found a few pods of bottle nosed dolphins on the trip which played alongside the boat, a few baby dolphins as well. After our day on the boat we headed back to our hostel. On our way back we passed a tour company which had a special price for 12,000 feet skydives over the Bay of Islands so I went in to enquire about it.... 30 minutes later we (Tracey didn't take much persuading) were at the airport being geared up in our sexy jump suits! We had a 20 minute scenic flight over the islands before the door opened and the freezing cold air came in. Another fantastic skydive - just love the freefall!!
After our 3 days in Paihia we headed back to Auckland for a few days where we caught up on our sleep before preparing for the next journey - South America!!
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