We began in the City of Sails itself (Auckland) which gaves us a lovely feeling of being back in NZ as we met some lovely people and its always cute to hear the quirky NZ accent (eh bro, chee, yeaah, ect ect) Our first destination was Piha, a world famous (yes you guessedit -surf spot!) The weather was gorgeous and the views spectacular from the island in the sea!!! A great start. That night we slept in Mt Manganui at the super Pacific hostel, hit the internet and tucked up for an early night.
Crusing along our next port of call was Gisborne, or 'Gizzy eh' as the locals say - On the East coast this town has a huge Maori population, some epic surf beaches and some good live music! We caught some waves, found a great campsite and even went to a gig by the legendary 'Katchafire' reggae band. What a night and experience that was...especially when its 1am and your going to drive through the night 8 hours to wellington - ONLY to find your car is being lifted onto the tow truck! shiiiiiiiiiiiit! i ran at the driver and asked him to take our car back down and let us go...$60 dollars later we were sailing away from Gizzy and onto Wellington on the north islands, south coast. Phew.
The over night drive only took us 7 hours and we went straight to Lyall Bay to meet up with old friend, surfer, chef, indo boy, Ricky. It was great to see him again and he welcomed us into his home which was wonderful. We surfed, fished and ate lots of lovely food!!! We had a very warm, homely feeling staying with him which made us very comfortable and relaxed and it was very enojyable, cheers brother!
Heading back up north now we went back to Rotorua and stayed at Blarneys Rock which is where we stayed 3 years ago - it hadn't changed a bit! only Sonny and Annette, the old owners were no longer there. It was good fun nonetheless and we did some great trips - one day we checked out the 'Polynesian spa' this is pools heated by the underground thermal activity Rotorua is famously known for, infact the whole of the city lies in the crater of an old volcano! Rad. We also had a lovely afternoon at a Maori village where there are Geysers and natural hot springs. We had a tour and a 'Hangi' traditional underground oven meal full of lamb, chicken, pork and everything else you can wish for! we were stuffed.
Moving up even further north we aimed for Whangerei, way up past Auckland, near the bay of islands. This was a really beautiful spot. We took a whole day hike to the Waterfalls, Kauri tree forest and eventually ending up at an old fort sight with a lookout over the whole city. This was a wonderful day, tough but very rewarding. The next day we went round to Sandy bay, a gorgeous beach with some pumping surf - and no one out! classic NZ, i surfed for 3 hours, got sunburnt but had a few good rides and even some more little tube rides :) I was very stoked....until the next morning when we decided to take our time getting back to the airport....until we actually checked our flight time - it wasnt 7pm, but 4!!! At 11am we had only 3 hours to get back to Auckland, check in AND take the rental car back! We stepped on it, and just made it in time. We were the last to check in on a flight of over 300 people. crazy.
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