Bay of Islands
Trip Start
May 24, 2005
1
47
66
Trip End
Jan 13, 2006
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Pie Here, New Zealand
Saturday, November 5, 2005
After an enjoyable couple of days with the Crawford family in Auckland, we hire one of the smallest campa vans in existence and head to Northland. Here we head to the Bay Of Islands, no description needed of the general landscape with that name eh. From here we caught the obligatory boat out to the Hole in the Rock, and opted for the extended day which included dolphin spotting. Unfortunately there were too many dolphins, including some only a day or two old meaning that we couldn't swim with them, shame. Instead we had the privilege of battering ourselves in the drag net off the side of the boat. Not as much fun as it looked and I ached for days after, oh well.
From here it was onto the top of New Zealand and 90 mile beach, another imaginative name, good one guys! Here we had to dump the campa and get on a coach since hire cars are not allowed to travel up the beach due to the uncanny nature of the tide to come in and wash them and their occupants away. Once at the top of the island we did a tiny amount of sand dune sledging (not enough for my liking)before heading back south again and onto the Coramandel.
Not hugely interesting, so I will tell the story of us leaving late to catch the dolphine boat. One of those mornings where suddenly we realised we had about 5 minutes to leave the campsite to get to the harbour. The trouble with campas is you have to have everything stowed away before driving, so I belowed at Lou to get in the back and pack whilst I drive......so maybe I was driving a little too fast along the very bumpy country lane, so all I could see out of the rear view mirror was Lou occasionally flying past with a look of desperation on her face as pots, pans, plates and cutlery flew around here. Then she announces she had left the camera on the campsite floor, so back we went again to double the damage!
