NZ Roadtrip north island day 21-27

Bay of Islands, Cape Reinga, Te Paki sanddunes, Ahipara, Kauri forests, Overnight cruise

I have arrived back home safely, but I still owe you the stories of the last couple of days in my trip.

Day 21: A couple of hours driving brought me to the top of the north island: Cape Reinga. Here two oceans meet and is considered the point where Maori spirits travel to the afterlife. It is a beautiful area with a lighthouse to mark the point from where it is approximately 18000 kilometers back home for me. Closeby are the giant Te Paki sand dunes, where the sandblasting wind almost ruined my camera. I take the return trip along the 90 mile beach to Ahipara (not driving it because that is not allowed with my rental).

Day 22: I visited the Waipoua Kauri forest. Here stand the biggest Kauri trees in the world and you feel really small walking amongst these trees with a circumference of 12 to 16 meters. In the evening I travel back to Paihia where I meet some people (also Dutch) from Auckland and we have a nice night at the desolate bar.

Day 23-24: Some souvenir shopping keeps me busy during the day in Paihia. In the late afternoon I get on “The Rock” on an overnight cruise in the Bay of Islands. It was a great experience: Shooting some paintballs at a wooden duck at the back of the boat, Fishing for snapper ( unfortunately we didn’t catch any that were big enough to put on the BBQ), Night kayaking under the full moon, a midnight swim, sleeping on a boat, snorkeldiving for kina (a zee-egel in Dutch) in the morning, chilling on an uninhabited island and eating the kina as a delicacy. It was awesome. In the evening I drove back to Auckland for my last couple of days.

Day 25: I strolled around a bit in Auckland, checking for cool souvenirs and cancelling my NZ bank account. I took a trip up the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere from where I got some cool views of the area. In the evening I caught up with the people I met in Paihia. We have some drink and head out into town. After finally deciding on a bar to go into it turns out that me and another girl are not allowed in with our jandals, which quickly ended the night out.

Day 26: On my last day in New Zealand I wanted to another kiwi bird, so I went to Auckland Zoo. They have some pretty cool animals, such as a tiger and Galapagos turtles as well as most of the New Zealand native animals. The zoo was a nice one day trip before I had to drop off my car at the airport. Awaiting my return to the Netherlands I relaxed a bit at the airport, having one last NZ beer.

Day 27: The return trip to the Netherlands via Shanghai was not too bad, although Februari 1st 2013 lasted 36 hours for me. Unfortunately the people in Shanghai have difficulty with English and they do not accept credit card. Luckily I could get some money from an exchange office (paying way too much for the service) and I got myself some food. After 29 hours of travel (with 24 hours in a plane) I arrived back in Amsterdam where my family awaited me for a nice reunion! Having a nice dinner and catching up was a great ending to a great trip!

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog. I hope you enjoyed it!