90 Mile Beach and up to Cape Reinga

Sunday 4 July 2010

Happy Fourth fellow Americans! I was sad that there were no fireworks (as this is my favourite thing in the world). I hope all of you got to enjoy it.

We did enjoy it, but it didn't start out fantastic. Just as I was about to fall asleep last night, a group of ladies came in. Apparently Germany and Argentina were playing futball and the people in our room were from Germany. So they were quite noisy talking about it.

We got up at 6:45 am. We got picked up from our hostel. When we got on the bus, we were told to sit on the left side of the bus. The entire left side was completely filled, so we were confused as to why we had to sit on the left, but we did. Later, we picked up a bunch of people who all sat on the right. We were told the left side was the better side.

The bus driver obviously wanted to play music and was practically begging us to give him an i-pod so he can play music. Someone finally did, but it was really unnecessary.

Anyway, our first stop was to see the kauri trees. These kind of trees only grow in this part of the world (meaning the most northern part of the North Island in New Zealand). We were in Manginangina Park which means "now you see it, now you don't", because sometimes you can see the forest and sometimes you can't. The fog comes in and out quickly. People were cutting down these trees and using them for houses, paper, and even firewood. There was a petition going around to stop the destruction of these trees, but they needed 1 million signatures. The problem is, 1 million is 1/4 of the population of New Zealand, and children don't count. So it was impossible to get this proposition passed. So they brought it up with the Queen, and she signed it. So it all went through and now these trees are not allowed to be cut down. Although, these trees are all on the ground and are used for carvings and other stuff.

Alison and I were told about these trees and how tall they were. We were expecting enormous trees, but I have to say, they were nothing compared to the Sequoia trees.

After the park, we went over a bump and drove in the sand through the 90 mile beach. Sometimes we even drove in the water. The name is deceiving, because it is not 90 miles. A man walked along it and it took him 3 days to cross it. He assumed it takes about 30 miles to walk a day, so he must have traveled 90 miles. The only thing was, he did not take into consideration that it takes longer to walk in the sand.

We then drove along skeleton beach. Many cars get stuck in the sand and their cars get buried in the sand and rust from the salt water. So all you can see is part of the skeleton of the cars, buses, trucks...

It was raining quite hard. There was an option to go sand surfing. It was so wet that none of us (meaning Mom, Alison, and I) decided to go. Other people did go, and there were a couple wipe outs. Several people got hurt, and said the sand was painful since it was so wet. So we were glad we didn't go.

Then we went to Cape Reinga. This is the northernmost part of New Zealand. The bus only went so far, then we had to get out and walk to the lighthouse. It was raining pretty hard. We walked fast and it wasn't easy walking. Mom's umbrella kept going inside out. I couldn't find my umbrella, so I huddled with Alison and we took small steps together. It was rainy, windy, and cold. At one point, the wind knocked my hands in a different direction while I was trying to take a picture, so I got a very strange looking picture. Mom's poncho was really giving her fits. It looked quite hilarious seeing her trying to walk while the poncho was flying in her face. The lighthouse was pretty. The Pacific Ocean was to the right and the Tasman Sea was to the left of Cape Reinga. We were told that sometimes you can see the line of where they meet. The Tasman Sea is rougher and lighter in colour and the Pacific Ocean is calmer and a darker blue, so the line is visible. We could not find the line, unfortunately. Either way, we were at the northernmost tip of New Zealand!

After being at the lighthouse for a while, the sun kind of peeked out for a bit. That was quite nice. We got back to the bus and stopped at a gift store for a while. This place had furniture and gifts made of kauri wood. Some of the furniture cost up to $55,000. I was scared to look at it. I definitely didn't trust myself sitting on it.

Then we made our way back to Paihia and finally checked in to our hostel (since it was closed when we arrived). They told us what to do, since they would not be open when we check out tomorrow.