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Auckland
After bidding a sad farewell to South America we boarded our 13 hour Saturday night flight to New Zealand and somehow arrived at 4AM on Monday morning! We had lost an entire day in translation and it was a very weird feeling. Arriving at our hostel we discovered we were due a free beer from a handy Auckland guide. Craig thought it was a great idea, so slightly jet-lagged was to be found sitting at the hostel bar drinking beer at 7AM (to be fair it was about 5PM Chile time!).
In the strange world of travelling, coincidences happen surprisingly often. While in Argentina we met a couple of guys from Birmingham (Dave) and Perth (Bryan) on a wine tour, then when we arrived in Chile they were in the same dorm room as us. Later we discovered we were all on the same flight and when we boarded one of them was sitting directly in front of us! Deciding fate had thrown us together we spent a few days exploring Auckland together then decided to hire a car and do a quick tour of the area north of Auckland. We both really liked Auckland, the City of Sails, mostly because it is clean, modern and bustling. After being in Spanish/Portuguese speaking countries for 3 months we relished being able to ask for directions without getting blank looks in return and found that we kept talking to random people just because we could. We spent our time shopping, walking round the city seeing the harbour and Sky Tower and walking up Mount Eden, an old volcano with spectacular views of the city.
Up to Cape Reigna
As time was short for all of us we bought a tent and equipment, left Auckland and set off in our swanky hire car. Unfortunately our car broke down after just 1 hour on the road outside Helensville, Dave was driving we didn’t have anything to do with it!! We got rescued by Dave, a lovely Scottish AA man who took us to his garage and fed and watered us. 7 hours later, we arrived back in Auckland! Don’t ask how it took the AA 7 hours to get us back to Auckland which was an hour away, we still don’t know. So off we set in a new car and arrived in Dargaville at 11PM that night, where we managed to camp for free and see some beautiful scenery.
We set off early the next day with Cape Reigna as our target, and stopped en-route to visit Tane Mahuta tree, 13.8 metres wide and very very tall! The photo doesn’t really do it justice but trust me, it was enormous. We also stopped at Ninety Mile Beach on the Aupori Peninsula (it’s actually 64 miles, why?!) but were scared off walking too far by the legendary sinking sand. After about 100km of wet and windy gravel track we arrived at Cape Reigna, the most northern point of New Zealand. Apparently on clear days there are stunning views of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meeting with enormous waves, but when we arrived it was raining and very misty. We did get to see the lighthouse and signpost pointing to various locations around the world, but after travelling for so long it was a bit of an anti-climax.
Bay of Islands
We pushed on to the Bay of Islands where the weather was much better and managed to get an apartment for virtually nothing thanks to Bryan flirting with the girl on reception. We celebrated Bryan’s last night of travelling (he’d been on the road for 12 months and couldn’t wait to get home) with a curry, beer and watching The Young Guns (yee-ha!). We had intended to visit the Treaty House where the Treaty of Waitangi (founding document of modern New Zealand) was signed. Unfortunately the document is not actually held there and it cost a fortune to get in so we gave it a miss and went for a walk on the beach instead! After spending time exploring the Bay of Islands, we drove back to Auckland where we said our goodbyes to Bryan and Dave, and set off for the Central Island.
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