Before traveling north to the Bay of Islands, Kyle and I wanted to make the most of our last morning in Piha. Kyle got up early to surf while I took the chance to sleep in a little bit. I then met up with Kyle at the beach and we took the challenge of climbing up Lion rock. Although it was a little cloudy in the morning the view of the coast and Piha was pretty sweet.
After a quick lunch we started the trek up north. Instead of taking the quicker route, we decided to travel the coast and visit a couple of notable spots on the way. These included Sandy Bay, a waterfall (that I'm currently forgetting the name of), and a couple of other beaches that I'm also forgetting the name of. Our route traveled via a bunch of small curvy roads that were carved through mountains and forests. The drive alone was worth the trip regardless of where we actually ended up. Around dinner time we finally arrived at the Bay of Islands where we enjoyed an authentic fish and chips dinner at a small place on the water. We then went to our hostel and spent the night enjoying a couple of drinks at the bar and talking with a girl we met from London. It was an interesting experience meeting other people our age who were traveling alone just like us, with some even being gone for an entire year.
We started the next day bright and early and decided to travel even farther north to Cape Reinga - the most northern tip of NZ where the Pacific and Tasman seas meet. The trip took a few hours and once again consisted of curvy roads and great scenery. Trips like that literally feel like a half hour when there's so much around you to take in. When we finally got to Cape Reinga it was a little cloudy and raining on and off, but we were still able to see the "clashing of the seas" and sweet views of the coast.
From Cape Reinga we traveled back down south a bit to Shipwreck Bay, a world class surfing spot that Kyle had been dying to see. Unfortunately, the timing of when we arrived was off a bit, and the waves were virtually non existent. Kyle can assure you that when they are there however, they are magnificent. So instead of surfing we relaxed on the beach for a little while and hiked down the beach and some rocks. You're allowed to drive your car on the beach there so we were able to get our little car down to the water for a nice photo shoot.
Since we were still pretty far up north we had to decide whether or not to drive back down to Auckland at night or first thing in the morning. Ultimately we decided to make the 5 hour trip at night and arrived at a hostel in downtown Auckland around midnight. We were both pretty tired from all our driving so we called it a night and hit the sack.
This morning we were able to do some laundry and get some Dunkin Donuts breakfast downtown before having to return our car at the airport. Overall we traveled about 1200 kms in four days. Driving around was a blast, and for anyone looking to travel to NZ I would highly recommend just renting a car and exploring on your own.
We finally met up with the entire Calvin group around 2, who were all pretty tired from their string of flights. We then all hopped on a tour bus and traveled about 3 hours south to Rotorua - the adventure capital of NZ. We're staying at a pretty nice hostel that works with traveling groups. With everyone staying in rooms of four or three it feels like a school trip or that we're all at camp or something - it's pretty fun. We were greeted with a nice steak and chicken dinner of which Kyle and I both appreciated after surviving off of little for the past few days. After dinner a group of us took a dip in the hot thermal pool, which is heated naturally to about 98 degrees by a thermal hot spring below it.
Tomorrow's weather calls for rain, so they're switching around our itinerary a bit for things that aren't so reliant on weather. I'll try to keep cranking out the blog posts, but so far have had pretty limited access to wifi. Fortunately I'm able to draft them on my phone and then upload whenever I'm connected to the Internet. For now you all will just have to live with the suspense of not knowing what's next. So long and see you soon!
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