Back to the heat: Paihia, Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga, New Zealand

I was super bummed when I actually checked out my dates for my stop in New Zealand. It seems that with the travel days I only really had about 10 full days there. Then I started to do some research on what to do in and around Auckland and realized there is tons to do there and I had a feeling I wouldn't be disappointed.

New Zealand is absolutely gorgeous. As soon as you head north 20 minutes from Auckland you are all of sudden in beautiful country side. The way you travel around NZ, particularly if you're a solo traveler, is through the numerous bus companies around and book a package. I booked with Stray bus a trip that would take me from Auckland up to Paihia, a day trip to Cape Reinga, and then back to Auckland.

Here are some of my shots from the ride from Auckland to Paihia:

A picture of an 800 year old tree:

A quick stopover to take a ride in a glass bottom boat at a marine reserve. We saw sting rays!! 



Paihia (it was aight)



Paihia was really really pretty. The water is an unbelievable blue/green. For the first time I thought, "oh yeah, I guess this is the South Pacific".

After the third day of chillin on the beach I took a trip up to Cape Reinga. This is the spot where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific. The day was overcast so it was near to impossible to check out the water but I got a few good creepy shots.

A long way from home!

Our trip involved going to the sand dunes right before the beach to do some dune surfing. It was tons of fun but that hill was super hard to climb and took like 5 minutes to get to the top. Here are some pictures of the dune surfing and people eating it:

Then it was on to 90 mile beach on the Tasman side of the island. For all those who are curious, it isn't actually 90 miles long. Back in the day they knew that cattle could travel 30 miles in one day. Since it took the cattle 3 days they assumed that the beach was 90 miles long. What they didn't take into consideration is that it's much harder for cattle to walk on the sand as they use much more energy. The beach is actually about 55 miles long.

Some surfer enjoying no one in sight:

The trip was totally worth it although it was overcast. Don't let the pictures fool you - I got one killer sunburn that day because I didn't reapply frequently enough.

My last little adventure was a trip to the hole in the rock. (The picture above isn't the real deal, just another hole in a rock). I took a boat ride and saw some of the 144 islands in the bay on a very fast speed boat. Apparently it is the fastest in the bay and we went over 100 km per hour. Woo hoo! The experienced was enhanced by the classic rock playlist. Thank you to Matt and Jasmine for helping to sponsor the hole in the rock tour! It was soooo much fun and never would have done it if it weren't for their Christmas gift.

It was a short but adventurous trip to New Zealand! I can't wait to go back and check out the rest of the country. Now on to Sydney to catch up with some friends and more sun!

Much love,

Maggie