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| A secluded beach near Whangarei (pronounced Fang-a-ray) |
| Erin's Journal 01-19-03 & 01-20-03 New Zealand This morning, I woke up still sore from all our recent adventuring. Sore arms from kayaking, sore legs from horseback riding, and sore hands & feet from blackwater rafting. But we had a blast, so there were no regrets! Plus a nice, hot shower helped loosen me up, and we packed up and got ready to leave in no time. Today was Glenn's mom's birthday back home (we'd waited till the actual birthday back home, as we are a day ahead here), and we needed to call to wish her a great day (and show we never forget our moms!!!). Our never-used phone card turned out to be a real rip-off, as the lady who'd pitched the VIP card deal to us in South Africa had left out a few pertinent bits about the 'free international phone card, which can be used in S. Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the UK!' Nope, no luck. So we went down to the local store and bought a $5 phone card. But with our luck, we got all the way back to the pay phone and found that the pin number couldn't be revealed, as the scratch-off material had melted into the card! So we returned it and the lady at the counter handed me a different kind, which she seemed to think would have better rates. Nope, we made the call and only got to talk for 2 minutes!!! Unacceptable! Finally we got a card with the pin number revealed due to very careful scratching technique, and were able to spend about 10 minutes chatting with Glenn's parents. We will be able to again next weekend when we're in Melbourne, but birthdays are important! We tried to call my mom as well, but got the machine. Sigh. Mission accomplished with the phone, we got in the car for the estimated 6 hour drive up to the Bay of Islands, near the northern tip of the island. The drive was pretty uneventful. The countryside was rolling green hills, dotted with gorgeous big farmhouses, groups of cows and sheep, and the occasional town. We reached Auckland after about 3 hours, but didn't stop. We needed lunch by then, but didn't want to get lost in the city's confusing street system. We ended up driving almost another hour north, to a seaside town, and almost decided to stay there. We ate lunch right on the beach in the shade of a huge tree, watching various watersports and admiring the bay view. But we continued on after a few phone calls (including my mom, which was great!), and drove northward into more hilly territory. It too was beautiful, but it was getting late and more cloudy the further we went. Glenn was definitely not in favor of clouds, so we decided to go to the last big town before Bay of Islands, Whangarei, and stay there instead. We checked into a holiday park, and got ourselves a unit with bath and kitchen included. Nice! We cooked dinner and checked out the town a little, but it was mostly all closed up (after 5pm most stuff closes!), and we just watched tv till bedtime. 01-20-03 New Zealand Today we got up and had a quick breakfast, heading up to Bay of Islands. This seafront town is very popular with tourists, and we could see why when we reached it. 3 hours north of Auckland, it is secluded and charming, and the only things to do there were various water activities or sunbathing (with drinking optional at night). We camped ourselves on the beach on our towels and finally got some sun on the usually clothed bits of us. We ate lunch while watching the kayakers, catamarans, and yachts in the bay, and Glenn took note of the one woman on the whole beach going topless. Oh yeah, he's a guy. After about 3 hours, I started to feel myself burning, as I'm on an antibiotic and 2 layers of sunscreen just won't help right now. So we got back in the car and drove northwards on some of the scenic routes, stopping occasionally for photos. One golf course we drove through had wonderful panoramic views of the entire bay (filled with islands, as the name suggests), and we admired that until remembering that we were in the line of golf ball fire. We ended up in KeriKeri, another small town a bit north, and did a bit of shopping for new bathing suits (Glenn's has faded and he needs a new one, and mine has unraveling strings - not so safe on a string bikini top!). No luck, but we did get some ice cream. We drove a little further up the coast and ended up at a small inlet called Opito Bay, where we read our books (Glenn in sun, me in shade) until it was time to head back to Whangarei. The drive back was quick, as we'd picked up a couple of hitchhiking backpackers who happened to be from Tasmania and chatted the whole way. They were really nice, but we were doubly glad we are not using that mode of transportation ourselves! After dropping them off on the highway, we stopped at the store for some dinner supplies before heading back to the holiday park. Dinner was easy and tasty, and we watched a bit more tv before heading off to read in bed. I crashed early. The sun is tiring! |
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| The Bay of Islands, as seen from Paihia's beach |