Day 120 - Kerikeri

Kerikeri is sweet. Its nothing special though. Recommended by Justin and Chloe (see them here) fame, as their hometown, we were expecting a cool surf town. But it wasn't really. Its cute though. And nearby are a stack of amazing islands (within the Bay of Islands), complete with dolphins and caves. So we jumped on a boat tour that takes the lot in, and wowed at the posey dolphins and sailed through a massive 'hole-in-the-rock' (as its called).









We stayed at a nice hostel, where we met some proper mauri guys. One, called henary, had a whole face covered in tattoos. He kinda looks like a tramp at first, until you realise he's totally amazing. totally. he can read auras, and said that whilst i was good, I did have a bad streak. Killer. He also spotted my guardian angel following me around all day, which is kinda nuts. But i love that stuff.

We're cooking all our own meals these days - no more eating out like we did in South America. Its all change. I'm on a mild detox, so planning on being super fit and healthy soon. Lots of grapes, lots of apples, and lots of water. I'll have a six-pack before I get to australia. That said, a 10-hour bus journey didn't help, especially since I consumed a massive ice-cream and 3 sausage rolls on the way. But the trip was cool.



First stop was a kauri forest. These are trees which take 300 years to grow and last for ages. Of course, I'm a total idiot, so I started humping the biggest tree for a photo. Didn't impress the other tourists, but was kinda funny.





We shot off to the 'ninety-mile-beach' next, a 64 mile beach at the northern tip of new zealand. It might not really be 90 miles, but its pretty long and pretty special. Its a public highway, so cars can shoot up it, but loads get caught in the high-tide and sink in the sand. Its weird, a 90-mile-beach 'sounds' pretty cool. But it takes about a hour to drive along, and its 'just' a beach. So that was a bit rubbish.


(it literally goes on for 64 miles that way, just like this...dull)

That said, at the top of the beach we drove through some quicksand (quickly) and then had a couple of go's at sandboarding down some sand dunes. They weren't very big (not like Huachachina in Peru) but were still cool.





And then we took a walk along a cute little beach, and walked to the sacred Cape Reinga, a meeting point of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean, where the mauri's believe your spirit departs to another place when you die. It was nice. Pretty. A bit dull. But nice.









And then we started the long 4 hour drive back to Kerikeri. The next day, we hopped in the Laser and drove back to Auckland, where we're planning on heading to some amazing hot water beach on Saturday.