Northland adventures

Hello again from Auckland! Steph and I are sitting in the same internet cafe we posted from last time, only this time we have pictures of our excursion up to the Northland of New Zealand to share.

After a couple of nights in hotels, we began the backpacking portion of our trip in earnest when we boarded the Magic Bus bright and early, 7:15 AM, last Thursday. The first pickup spot was the office, and we were a little surprised when there were only six or seven people on the bus. Once we made the rest of the pickups at the hostels, however, we probably had twenty people on board for the trip up North.

It was a pretty uneventful ride up, with the exception that I tried my first pie for breakfast, a delicious concoction of steak, cheese and pastry. Yum. A couple of hours after we left Auckland, we arrived in Paihia, gateway to the Bay of Islands. We originally planned to stay for only one night, but after learning about the opportunity to swim with dolphins, something Steph has always wanted to do, we decided to book a day tour out on the water to try and do just that. Since Magic only picks up and drops off on alternate days, this meant we would be in Paihia for a total of three days.

While we had some initial reservations about the cost of the trip, we got our money's worth within the first hour when we spotted several pods of dolphins swimming together, sometimes within feet of the boat! Steph got some amazing pictures and I got a good video of the sightings. The trip also included an island stopover where I got to do a bit of tramping and Steph got some beach time, a trip to the famous Hole in the Rock, and some boom netting, where I and several others were dragged in a big fishing net alongside the boat. After the boat trip, we tried our first fish and chips, I learned the rules of cricket and rugby, and we spent some time out with a lovely British couple, Roz and Nick.

On the last full day it rained lightly most of the day, but that didn't stop us from doing a few things around town. I went on my first real tramp, which was great, and Steph and I took a grueling bike ride to some rather sad looking falls (especially compared to what I saw in Yosemite earlier this year). Not wanting to ride the hills back, we took a 5K tramp to get to higher ground, so as to be able to coast on the bikes back to our hostel.

We woke up bright and early this morning to catch the Magic Bus back to Auckland. Along the way we stopped in a few quaint towns, and drove through the Waipoua Forest, which showcased the way New Zealand was before it was settled. The biggest attraction was the massive kauri tree, Tane Mahuta, thought to be over 2,000 years old. Pretty incredible stuff.

The pictures from this section of the trip (and a brief dolphin video) are on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286152&l=3a988&id=9605303

Tomorrow we are headed down south to Rotorua and Taupo. We'll post an update on those adventures in a few days.