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17th Jan
Today we got the bus from Paihia south to Hokianga where we had a one night stop. Arrived about lunchtime - our hostel was lovely, like a little cosy country house. Was up on a hill with a view over the sand dunes in the Hokianga harbour. There were four of us from our bus staying there which was nice (a French girl and an Irish girl). The town itself was tiny, (only about 2 cafes and a garage) but the beach was really nice. We spent the afternoon sunbathing and went for a swim in the sea which wasnt too cold! In the evening we went on a special tour of the Waipoua forest where they have famous Kauri trees (some of the biggest in the world). We were taken to see several thousand year old trees which were huge! Our two tour guides were really nice and told us about Maori legends and sang prayers to the trees in Maori. It got dark while we were there so it was a really different experience to if we'd gone in the daytime. It was 'sweet as'! (one of the guides again had a tendency to overuse this phrase! hehe!).
Next day we got the bus the rest of the way back to Auckland - where we didnt actually have any accomodation booked as all the hostels were full! Very luckily the driver managed to get us something at the last minute, otherwise we were thinking we would be sleeping in the park or macdonalds! We arrived in Auckland late afternoon and went out for dinner on the harbour, celebrating having a bed to go back to with a bottle of wine!
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