27.01.2020 I didn't know we were going sand boarding - honestly.....

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Today I took a full day coach trip to the Far North mostly to see Cape Reinga and the place where The Pacific meets The Tasman Sea - John was always a one for getting to the extremity of any country and telling the world that he'd been there. Usually by driving the Toyota or his motorbike into a place where it wasn't allowed to be!!!

I left on the Russell ferry at 0700 to get the bus from Paihia so an early start for me. Our coach driver Tanya was a Maori and gave great commentary as we drove along explaining the names of the various places and what they actually mean as well as giving us some tips on how to pronounce stuff. We passed beautiful beaches and sandy coves with not one around. First stop was at Puketikauri Forest to see some of the legendary kauri (prounounced cody????) trees. These are the trees that the Maori carved their canoes from and are used today for beautiful furniture and carvings. Some of the trees in the forest are 1,000 years old but they are not the eldest or the largest

Pointing out the sights along the way Tanya then took us to Te Paki Stream, drove the bus through the stream and headed for the giant dunes where the plan was to go sand boarding. I was wearing a dress - didn't know about the sand boarding honestly so didn't think that my fellow travellers would want a view of my backside as I zoomed down the dune plus it looked like hard work getting up. One little Chinese boy was determined to make it to the top which he did bless him. It seemed to take him forever but when he came down it was even slower - just saying - I know I'm not one to mock!! Changes in colours are me playing with filters - sorry.!

Our next stop was Cape Reinga (Te Rerenga Wairija - don't ask me how to say that! ) This is the Northernmost point in New Zealand and is sacred to the Maori for whom it is the departing place of Maori spirits. When someone dies their body goes to their tribal Meeting House where their families and friends stay with them for three days. Once buried it is believed that their spirit returns to Cape Reinga where it then enters the ocean via the roots of a very old tree there, swims to one of the Three Kings Islands - just off shore from where the spiirit looks back on New Zealand, sings a song of farewell and then returns to their original tribal home in Hawai or Tahiti for that's where the Maoris came from originally. It really was beautiful. It;s also the home of the Cape Reinga Lighthouse and the currents in the photos to the left of the lighthouse is the place where the Pacific and Tasman meet.

Our final stop of the day was at 90 Mile beach which is actually around 55 miles. It gets the 90 mile name because early European settlers took 3 days to ride along it and they estimated that they could ride 30 miles per day - didn't allow for the soft sand.

The beach is actually a public highway and we were supposed to drive along it on the bus. However there's been no rain here for over three weeks and the rim - or entry to the beach from the road was very soft and the bus couldn't get down without risk of getting stuck and us being stuck there - not a bad place to get stuck really...

A great day but a long day got back into Paihia around 1834 so just missed the ferry to Russell and had to wait around until 1930 - glass of wine I think while I wait. xx