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Outskirts of Auckland, 90 Mile Beach, Cape Reinga, Bay of Islands
I arrived at Auckland Airport at around midnight. There was no one at the arrivals gate for me to run lovingly into the arms of - I had to settle for some searching questions from the bio hazard team regarding my activities in the country whilst in Australia, they then proceeded to take my tent apart looking for living things and then handed it back to me to reassemble in the arrivals lounge. Luckily I was so late I had already come to terms with the fact I would spend the night at the airport.
After one night in a hostel in the centre of Auckland I plucked up the courage to do some Couchsurfing and got the bus out of town to stay with a guy called Ben. This was to be my first Courchsurfing experience and I didn't know quite what to expect from it - but soon after I got off the local bus (that cost me $9!) I got chatting a few locals in the town of Silverdale and soon realized how incredibly friendly and hospitable Kiwis are.
Ben had been traveling for over years before just arriving back in NZ a few months ago and had been living back on his father's farm and had been feeding the traveling beast by bringing the travelers to him. His father's smallholding was a real nice place, on top of a hill where you can walk out of a patio door and see miles of glorious rolling hills. I got there, not really know the etiquette of Couchsurfing - who buys the food, do I need a sleeping bag, how long can I stay, should I bring a gift etc. Everyone I had asked who were couch surfing veterans had said this depends on the host, which didn't help me greatly. Luckily for me, Ben was the kind of host who would provide us with food, which was excellent, particularly as made a mean pasta sauce. There were in fact three of use Couchsurfers stopping there - there was also Hanza (a Czech) and Elaine, (a Finn). That afternoon we all headed down to the neareset beach and spent some time drifting around in the estuary, where Ben had assured us there were some quite warm waters, unfortunately the tide was heading in the wrong direction, so it was in fact, very cold. Then we all head back for the evening to watch The Fighter and some cricket.
The next day Ben told me they had planned to head up to the Cape (most north point of New Zealand) by going up the 90 mile beach. This was great, as it was something I'd planned to do. But didn't relish the prospect of hitching all the way up there. It took us a fair few hours to get to the Southern most accessible point of the 90 mile beach (which is actually more like 60 miles), a which point we cranked up the 4 wheel drive on the pickup and gave it hell. Three quarters of the way along we pulled off behind and dune and took out some body boards Ben had borrowed from a neighbor and did some sand boarding. This was all new to me and the news that the idea was to go down head first hadn't sat to well with me. 'What you need to do is run off the top and jump forward in the air,' Ben had said. But once I got the hang of it, it was pretty fun - you just had to dip your legs in the sand to steer yourself away from the car when you got to the bottom. We camped on the beach that night - after the fire died out in a matter of minutes and the sun when down, we did as so all campers and went to be early. Our bellies full of tofu burgers and crisps. The next morning we headed up to Cape Reinga and then I managed to get dropped off at Paihia by the bay islands on the way back to Auckland, having first had some classic New Zealand style fish and chips along the way.
As a side note, it was not until later that I was told that in fact if you order fish and chips in NZ, the fish is normally Shark, and more importantly I was told, one of the bottom-feeding varieties. (The sea bottom that is). So when ordering fish and chips in New Zealand, always ask for a specific type of fish with your chips - apparently Blue Cod is quite good.
I was dropped off in the area of the Bay of Islands. A collection of over 100 Islands off the north coast of New Zealand. I had pre booked a campsite one of the largest - Urupukapuka and mistakenly thought that there might be a ferry leaving that afternoon. I soon found out I had missed the last ferry of the day, but as it had been raining for the previous 12 hours, it seemed preferable to spend the night on the mainland and get there in the morning, so I checked into a hostel offering a $10 all you can eat BBQ and a beer and I was content for the evening. I got to meet some of the folk on Magic bus to share stories and get some info on where they had been as well as feed of there unerring admiration for me as an independent traveler who would soon be hitch hiking with a tent strapped to my back - rock and roll.
The next morning the weather had improved and I got the morning ferry across to the island. At first I thought the $40 return was a bit on the steep side, although I found out this was more of a sightseeing tour boat, that was going to 'The Hole in the Rock' and would drop me off on the way. We also had around 10 dolphins swimming around the boat for 15 minutes of the trip, which would have easily been worth the money alone. It was on this boat that I also got my first taste of the, a shade sarcastic but nonetheless witty New Zealand drivers/captains/pilots commentary that they all like to reel off.
My first day and a half on the island was great - mostly due to some improved weather, making the scenery all the more stunning and make my $8 a night campsite on the beachseem pretty awesome. I was however confused as to why there were only a few tents on such a big site that seemed so tranquil. The representative from the DOC who came around to check on the site, suggested that it might have been something to do with a Typhoon that had been circling off the coast. I put this to the back of my mind until in the middle of the second night there, when my $35 dollar tent was tested to its limits by a howling gale. First thing in the morning I was up while it was still just drizzle, had my tent away as fast as my freezing wet finger could manage and retreated like the fair-weather camper I was to the café in the other bay to eat chips while I waited for my ferry out of there. There was no dolphin watching on the way home, only people trying to keep their breakfast down.
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