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Cape Reinga (Ree-ANG-er), the most northwesterly tip of the North Island, is a long but rewarding day trip from Paihia. As well as being the meeting place of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean, Maoris believe that their souls leave the mainland via the Cape on their way to the afterlife. Out of respect for the Maoris, visitors are requested not to eat, drink or sleep at the Cape - so we were stuffing our faces as much as we could as the Awesome Adventures bus passed through mist-filled valleys and fields full of tiny lambs.
By the Cape lighthouse, members of a Maori tribe were standing quietly in a circle, all facing inwards. We hovered nearby anxiously, wondering if we were intruding on a funeral ceremony. In fact, they were there to provide a short performance for the tourists including some singing and a demonstration of one of their tribal haka, complete with weapons. It was amazing to watch, especially set against the stunning ocean backdrop. All around me, cameras were lowered as people were so mesmerised that they almost forgot to take any photos.
The afternoon was much more active, beginning with sandboarding down the nearby giant Te Paki sand dunes which are about 85m high. To my untrained eye, the sandboards looked like surfboards, with a smooth underside, and a slightly textured topside on which you lie face down. Our guide explained that the idea was to lie down on the board, shoot down the dune, across the quicksand stream at its base and end up in the grassy area beyond that. Navigation and braking are controlled by your feet - tapping against the sand to steer and dragging against the ground to slow down. Everyone started to look slightly concerned as he reminded us that due the remoteness of the area, in the event of any serious injuries, any emergency services were at least a 2hr drive away. "Oh, and if you fall off your board, don't let go of it 'cos if you get your arm stuck in the sand, you'll dislocate your shoulder" he finished. At this point, the girl next to me put down her board and said: "Well, there's no way I'm going up now!"
We went up the dune in single file. I struggled from the start with my sandboard which was nearly as big as me, and too wide to tuck under my arm. What with the slippery sand and the wind that threatened to rip the board from my hands, I was an extremely unhappy Jo. The climb was definitely the worst part - though when I lay down on the board and looked down the steep gradient of the slope, expletives starting exploding in my head, but it was too late to change my mind.
"And GO!" said our guide, removing his leg which had been supporting my board from underneath. Clutching onto the end of the board for dear life and keeping my elbows firmly tucked in, all I was aware of was the hissing of the sand below me and the tiny dots of my fellow travellers coming into focus as I hurtled wide-eyed down the slope. However, I wasn't going at top speed, as I dragged my feet in the sand from quite early on and so slowed to a halt 3/4 of the way down the slope. Although exhilarated by my first sandboarding experience (as well as surviving it!), I couldn't face the tortuous climb back up the slope for another go. Instead I contented myself with trying to remove as much sand as possible from my face and clothes - it gets absolutely everywhere. Hours later I was still turning sand out of my pockets and kept experiencing the occasional "crunch" of grains in my mouth. Lovely.
My other favourite highlight of the afternoon was going tuatua (TOR-tor) digging on the beautiful Ninety Mile Beach, the 2nd longest in NZ. These cockle-like shellfish can be found buried in the sand at the low tide mark. Our guide instructed us to start digging into the soft wet sand with our feet, and once we hit something solid, that would be the tuatua. We obediently began prodding the sand with our toes - and immediately struck what seemed like hundreds of tuatua shells, which were then rinsed off in a bucket of water.
Suddenly one of the girls dropped her handful of tuatua and began dancing around: "ARRGH! Something came out of the shell!" she squealed. I didn't have a clue what she was talking about until I noticed a "tongue" of flesh slide cautiously out from the shell of one of my recently unearthed tuatua, and then zip back in again. I screamed too, but then watched in surprise as it started to burrow back down into the safety of the sand. We collected 3 huge buckets which our guide said would be used at the funeral of a revered Maori which would be taking place shortly.
However, not all of them were destined to end up at the feast. We gathered round as our guide smashed open some of the tuatua shells against the bus bumper and offered them round for a taste. We stood there with a tuatua each, not wanting to be the first to try them. A group of American girls looked particularly revolted: "Is that its sh*t?" one of them exclaimed, peering at a darkish bit of its insides. I finally plucked up courage to take a bite, and hoped that it wouldn't make any kind of movement as I brought it up to my face, or wriggle on the way down. To be honest, it didn't taste of much to me in its raw state, though it had a nice meaty texture. Some of the others said that it tasted like oysters.
Once back in Paihia, a group of us had a frankly bizarre supper on the beach made up of everyone's leftover food and snacks - biscuits, melon, plums and beer. The others were from wildly different backgrounds and nationalities - a German winemaker, a Dutch psychologist, a Japanese accountant and an Israeli girl who had just completed her compulsory military service. I don't think I'll ever get over the variety of people that you meet when you're travelling.
Paihia (pronounced Pie-HEAR) is 4 hrs north of Auckland in the "Winterless North". I arrived on Wednesday by backpacker bus (Kiwi Experience) - a first for me, and to be honest I didn't know what to expect. I thought it was just a Greyhound bus-like network that included specific stops to cater for backpackers. Instead, it's pretty much a full travel service - you can flip through huge binders of excursions and book these through the driver, who will fax through the requests en route so that by the time the bus arrives at the destination, the tickets are all printed out at the travel agency ready to be collected/paid for. The same goes for any accommodation too, as affiliated youth hostels reserve a set number of beds for each backpacker bus service. It's all pretty impressive. I liked the carpet on the bus floor too (I'm sure this isn't standard back home?? Lovely for my feet! :)Our driver was a bubbly Kiwi called Lauren, who regaled us with tidbits as we drove along. I'll bore you with my 2 favourite stories. The first is about the Auckland Harbour Bridge - it was originally only a 4 lane bridge, but was later increased by another 4 lanes, thanks to the skills of some Japanese engineers - therefore these extra lanes are now known as the Nippon Clip-Ons. Also, the translation of the original Maori name for Russell (a town in the Bay of Islands) was Big Fat Blue Penguin (not sure if there are still any around - they used to be the main ingredient in a Maori broth). I have also picked up (but not yet used) the following Kiwi phrase from her: "Sweet As" (no worries/great). The Pipi Patch hostel is about 50m from the beach, where there's a lovely panoramic view of Russell (aka the Blue Penguin town) on the opposite shore to Paihia, and a couple of the 144 islands that make up the Bay of Islands marine park. The islands form a barrier so the bay is sheltered and an ideal place for watersports, yachting, fishing and dolphin spotting! There's even a boat trip during which you can swim with the dolphins if conditions are right. At the moment, people aren't able to actually get into the water with them, but only observe as there are baby dolphins in the pods that approach the boats. In the old days, there was a boat service visiting the inhabited islands delivering groceries, milk and newspapers. These days the roads have made this service virtually redundant, but the service is now a daily excursion called the "Cream Trip" (sounds much better than the Milk Round) run by Fullers, and groceries and newspapers are still delivered during the trip to a couple of remote houses. I booked myself onto yesterday's Cream Trip, and as the boat wasn't due to leave until 10am, I decided to have brekkie at one of the waterfront cafes. Whilst I was waiting at one of the outside tables for my blueberry "hotcakes" and bacon to arrive, the family on the table next to mine finished their brekkie and left. Within seconds, seagulls swooped in from all directions and there was just a mass of fighting feathers, bacon rind and leftover scrambled eggs going everywhere. As the couple on the next table and I watched in horror, the waitress came out with my brekkie and saw the carnage. "B*gger off, you mongrels!" she yelled, and then turned to us to say: "They're scavengers, the number of breakfasts they've had!" Even though I tried to be vigilant eating my brekkie (hunched over the plate), one particularly intrepid seagull tried to swoop in, ricocheted off the window that I was sitting next to, and zoomed away in defeat, barely missing my head. When did meals get so difficult??
Once on the boat, we visited points of interest on various islands, such as the site of the first Christian sermon ever preached in New Zealand and the beach where Captain Cook (who named the Bay of Islands) landed. One of the highlights for me though was the simple delivery of a newspaper to a particular house on the tip of an island. The home owner had rigged up an ingenious "letterbox", which consisted of a bucket suspended at the end of a pulley system which extended several metres into the sea. We all waited expectantly as the boat drew alongside the bucket and a crew member popped in the plastic wrapped newspaper. Sadly, there was to be no demonstration of the pulley system: "He must have gone fishing" said the captain. At lunchtime, we stopped at one of the larger islands and had a free trip in the Nautilus, a vessel with glass walls below sea level for marine life viewing. We trooped downstairs and sat down on narrow benches as the Nautilus went out into deeper water. Then a bucket of feed was trailed first on one side of the boat, and then on the other so that everyone could take photos. These trips have been going for 20 years so the fish are happy to come right up to the boat. And why wouldn't they - those fish must be the luckiest in the Bay - they get fed several times a day for doing nothing but showing up! Large shoals of silvery fish appeared, including some HUGE snappers that I wouldn't even be able to hold in my arms without falling over ("Look, there's Martha!" said a crew member as one of the snappers went by).
The weather up here has been warm and humid for the first couple of days, and tantalisingly overcast until late afternoon when the sun appears in force. The sun did peep out occasionally during the trip though, and then the water turned from dull green/grey to inky midnight blue and teal. Just gorgeous. Despite Paihia being the hub of all activities for the marine park, it still has a very laid back, uncrowded feel. Our driver Lauren had urged us to get to the beach early if the sun was out "otherwise it'll be packed!" But even when the sun has been out (sadly, only from late afternoon on the last couple of days), there has still been masses of space between each group of sun worshippers. Maybe this is what passes for crowded in NZ? It's nothing like the pictures of Brighton on the first sunny day of the year. It's just one of the things that makes it so great travelling here. Another practical note is the number of public loos - they're everywhere and FREE. No need to fish out small change, or hunt desperately for the nearest McDs like I normally have to do in Europe.
Day 2 in New Zealand, and so far things have been going pretty smoothly. I spent most of yesterday afternoon after checking into the hotel doing a walkabout of Auckland City Centre and the Viaduct Harbour. It was a glorious day - about 22 degrees with tons of sunshine. It's really strange (but comforting) that cars here also drive on the left hand side - and at the really big junctions, the neon green man is replaced by a countdown of how many seconds you have left to cross the road, accompanied by noisy buzzer sounds to chivvy you along. When I got tired of walking, I hopped onto the free City Circuit bus which does a one way loop of the main city streets and the university campus. I also discovered that it has a stop right outside my hotel, which was handy - but to be honest, I've been walking everywhere as so I probably won't be using it again.
My hotel is on Queen Street (the main road running through the CBD), so I don't have to walk far to get to most places. I'm about 20 floors up, so have a fantastic view of the skyscrapers and to the left I can see bits of the Viaduct Harbour. There's a little kitchenette in my room, but I haven't made much use of it yet, as there are tons of places to eat, e.g. loads of Asian food courts, which is where I got my dinner last night. Prices here are (to me) jaw droppingly cheap - I had a massive takeaway tray of noodles with seafood for NZ$7, which I worked out to be c. £2.60, which I scoffed watching the Kiwi equivalent of You Are What You Eat on TV. There sure are a lot of UK TV imports - Blackadder III, Coronation Street and Bob the Builder are just some examples of what I came across when channel surfing. Richard Branson keeps on popping up too, as he is in New Zealand at the moment celebrating the birthday of one of his budget airline ventures and has said that he might be interested in becoming a major shareholder in Air New Zealand which has announced lots of job cuts.
I had a low key day planned in expectation of jet lag, starting off with a visit to the East Day Spa, which is part of the huge Sky City complex (casino, hotel, shops and a convention centre). That was just sheer bliss...I could have happily stayed there for the rest of the day. I decided to have lunch down at the Viaduct Harbour at one of the waterside pubs, but opted for just a sarnie as I was due to go on a sailing cruise in the afternoon and didn't want to upchuck on anyone. However, the lamb ciabatta that I ordered was HUGE - it was more like a main course of lamb and salad, with the ciabatta slices buried somewhere beneath them. A little sparrow perched on the restaurant rope cordon, within arm's reach, and watched me eat. When I relented and chucked it a piece of bread, I suddenly got dive-bombed by 2 seagulls and other sparrows, which made me jump! Flushed with success, the little sparrow came back after a while, but now much wiser, I ignored him and eventually he gave up on me.
There are various harbour cruises, but I went with Sail NZ, which has 2 ex-America's Cup sailing yachts. Unfortunately the weather had taken a turn for the worse, so whilst it was still warm, it was overcast. It was about 78 feet long, but we were all huddled up in the stern half, as that's where the (minimal) seating (and railings!) were. It definitely wasn't built for any pleasure cruising. It was mind-boggling listening to the crew talk about the sums of money involved in sail racing at the top level - the 4 year old racing yacht that we were on was estimated to cost about NZ$1m. Then you have the costs of mooring, maintenance etc - I was gobsmacked to hear that just the mainsail of a racing yacht costs about US$130,000, and its useful life is only TEN HOURS!! I wonder what happens to the hundreds of square metres of discarded sails...
Cape Reinga (Ree-ANG-er), the most northwesterly tip of the North Island, is a long but rewarding day trip from Paihia. As well as being the meeting place of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean, Maoris believe that their souls leave the mainland via the Cape on their way to the afterlife. Out of respect for the Maoris, visitors are requested not to eat, drink or sleep at the Cape - so we were stuffing our faces as much as we could as the Awesome Adventures bus passed through mist-filled valleys and fields full of tiny lambs.
The afternoon was much more active, beginning with sandboarding down the nearby giant Te Paki sand dunes which are about 85m high. To my untrained eye, the sandboards looked like surfboards, with a smooth underside, and a slightly textured topside on which you lie face down. Our guide explained that the idea was to lie down on the board, shoot down the dune, across the quicksand stream at its base and end up in the grassy area beyond that. Navigation and braking are controlled by your feet - tapping against the sand to steer and dragging against the ground to slow down. Everyone started to look slightly concerned as he reminded us that due the remoteness of the area, in the event of any serious injuries, any emergency services were at least a 2hr drive away. "Oh, and if you fall off your board, don't let go of it 'cos if you get your arm stuck in the sand, you'll dislocate your shoulder" he finished. At this point, the girl next to me put down her board and said: "Well, there's no way I'm going up now!"
My other favourite highlight of the afternoon was going tuatua (TOR-tor) digging on the beautiful Ninety Mile Beach, the 2nd longest in NZ. These cockle-like shellfish can be found buried in the sand at the low tide mark. Our guide instructed us to start digging into the soft wet sand with our feet, and once we hit something solid, that would be the tuatua. We obediently began prodding the sand with our toes - and immediately struck what seemed like hundreds of tuatua shells, which were then rinsed off in a bucket of water.
However, not all of them were destined to end up at the feast. We gathered round as our guide smashed open some of the tuatua shells against the bus bumper and offered them round for a taste. We stood there with a tuatua each, not wanting to be the first to try them. A group of American girls looked particularly revolted: "Is that its sh*t?" one of them exclaimed, peering at a darkish bit of its insides. I finally plucked up courage to take a bite, and hoped that it wouldn't make any kind of movement as I brought it up to my face, or wriggle on the way down. To be honest, it didn't taste of much to me in its raw state, though it had a nice meaty texture. Some of the others said that it tasted like oysters.
