Paihia, Cape Reinga and 90 Mile Beach

Hello all!

It's been a little while - or atleast it feels that way. I have been in Paihia for the last four days and managed to pack in A LOT.

Tuesday was the bus ride from Auckland. That was nice. Nothing particularly special. I enjoy riding the bus so it was good. I took many pictures (all blurry) through my window as we went. The northern New Zealand country side is very lumpy. Not just hilly, it actually looks lumpy like something out of a cartoon drawing. With equally unbelievable colours. We arrived in Paihia at around 4pm. There were two dutch girls on the bus and I was riding with a girl from Quebec who was also on the same flight as me coming out here - doing the SWAP thing as well. So the four of us rented a hostel room together with an ensuite. It was so nice to have a semi-private bathroom. That evening we went acros the street to the party hostel called the Pipi Patch for a $12 BBQ. It was fairly good and that's actually a reasonable price because everything in NZ is expensive it seems. That night was trivia night at the hostel's bar so the four of us girls plus one other were a team called the Moustache Riders in tribute to Movemeber (which is quite popular in NZ). That was really fun. I was the only one of use that has english as my first language so I found I was answering most of the questions, but they got a few that I never would have known and was very surprised they knew. It was a very good time. Wednesday the other 3 girls were of doing their activities so I had the day all to my self! Glorious! I sat on the beach and relaxed, did some laundry, etc. Then at 5 I boarded a boat called the Rock for an overnight trip around the Bay of Islands. There were 2 couples from Alberta, 1 from Calgary the other from Edmonton; plus two girls from Toronto (who were a bit snotty) and an older couple from BC! Yeah Canada! Within the first hour we were watching a pod of Orca swim around us - AMAZING! I got a picture of one of their backs. Then we cruised for a couple hours, did some fishing (didn't catch anything though, probably becaue of the whales), and had a big sit down dinner together. After it got dark we set up to do some night kayaking to see fosforescent algea. There were 3 groups and I was in the third. Unfortunately it was a full moon and a clear sky so the algea couldn't really be seen. But we weren't out of luck as far a spectacular sights go because those orca came back and we were completely surrounded! There was probably 6 of them or so, one of which was a big bull male. It was unreal. The water was completely calm and quite and we could hear them breathing. Then periodically they'd break the water. I had never before seen a real life wild orca! The next morning I watched the sun rise and they made us a deliscious breakfast of porridge, fresh fruit, and cereal. Then we cruised to another island to go for a hike. I got to kayak again because we didn't all fit in the taxi boat. The island was a bird anctuary but we didn't really see any. Once on the boat again we looked for a new spot to go snorkeling and for the weather to clear upot a bit. We did eventually go and it was freezing! But I was determined; I had never snorkeled before or even swam in the ocean really so I had to go. I didn't see anything particularly cool. But I did cut my hand on an oyster bed. After that we cruised back to Paihia and on our way we tried some rowe from some kind of sea creature, I forget the name. It was salty and strange but not particularly bad.

The next day (Friday) I caught a tour bus up to Cape Reinga (with a side trip to the Gumdigger's camp), which is the most northerly point of New Zealand, and it's where the Tazman Sea and the Pacific ocean meet. Some days you can actually see the line where the two seas crash together. We had a really nice day so the line was harder to see. After we went to the west coast to do some sand dune boarding - very fun. Then on the 90 Mile Beach which may have been my favorite. The beach isn't actually 90 miles, I think he said it was mor like 70 but still... We drove down the actual beach which was cool. The tide was on its way out but we still had to be very careful. The Tazman sea is ferocious! Our driver said that the waves were small that day because the weather was nice. They looked pretty big to me. Appearantly there are wild horses in the area but we didn't get to see any. On the way home we stopped at the best fish and chips place in the whole country, it was voted #1 three times or something. But it really was the best fish and chips I've ever had.

Being on the boat on wednesday night was the first time I was able to understand how lonesome I've been. It was because of those bitchy girls from Toronto. I hadn't met many Canadians until that point and they snubbed me. It's hard to find people who get you, and when you're having these incredible experiences you want to be able to share that moment. I was excited to meet them and they were above it. It was mean. However, I did meet another girl from Edmonton on the Cape trip tough and she was fantastic. We may secretly be twins. I needed that, I needed someone to understand me because traveling is stressful even when it's fun. I'm very happy to be here but that doesn't make it easy - it just makes it worth it.

So I'm heading back to Auckland in an hour to regroup. I still have no plan, but I do have some feasible ideas...