The Final Chapter

This is the last chapter of my south to north journey through New Zealand. The last big stop on my trip was the resort town of Paihia in the beautiful Bay of Islands in the far north. I started my time here with a whale/dolphin watching trip where we saw a pod of orcas including a little baby, relatively speaking. Apparently they only see orcas once every several years, so we were pretty lucky. I also took a trip to the very very far north. The day started by traveling a couple of hours north of Paihia and then driving down the beautiful expanse of 90 mile beach in a super duty beach driving bus. 90 mile beach is an actual beach that is a registered highway with a 100 kph speed limit. Next was a visit to the Cape Reinga lighthouse, which is the furthest point north in New Zealand, followed by a bush walk through a dense and damp kauri forest. The kauri is a native New Zealand tree in the conifer family that was nearly logged to extinction. Although there are few forests left, the kauri is now completely protected. Like many of the plants in New Zealand the kauri tree can get massively huge so I felt like a bit of a hobit walking among giants the the kauri forest. The last stop of the day was for the New Zealand culinary specialty of fish and chips which were salted to oblivion and wrapped up in a neat little package using enough paper to wrap a small horse. They were pretty darn tasty. On my last day in Paihia I originally planned to wander about the neighboring town of Russell, but after talking with other folks at the hostel I instead opted for a highly recommended sailing trip through the Bay of Islands. This was a good choice because the sailing trip was really nice. There were only five of us on the boat, we had nearly perfect weather (only a little rain) and best of all the skipper put us to work helping with the sails and driving the boat. The next and final leg of my trip was to return to Auckland. I am not overly impressed by Auckland. Is is pretty much just another big city. I did, however, splurge and book a nice hostel near the city center. I even have my own bathroom, which means I'll come home clean. I make no promises on the state of my clothing, but my person will start the trip home fresh and clean.

Well, I suppose that is it. After 3 trains, 5 planes, ~24 buses and 13 boats my trip through New Zealand is complete. All in all it was a pretty good trip! So, in closing, please return your seatback to the upright position, make sure your tray table is securely locked and prepare to land back in real life.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Jenny