we went out to cape reinga and 90 mile beach. this part of the tour was part of our kiwi experience but operated by awesome adventures. on the way up, we stopped at puketi kauri forest. kauri are the second largest trees in the world. california redwoods are bigger. haha! damn, to think i was among them practically everyday for 10 years. anyway, since kauri are really big, i wanted to see them and we got to see some so i'm happy. it was really dark in the forest so my pics aren't so great. plus, we didn't see the really big one, the most famous one. on our bus were some boys from brazil. belo horizonte to be exact. twiddle thumbs got so excited because that's the home town of sepultura. one of them has run into igor at restaurants. cool.

a little panorama of our stop at paua station

finally we made it to cape reinga. i say finally because this was one of my must see stops, ya know? this is one of things i've been waiting for. i was wearing the appropriate shirt too. the shirt that sums it all up. the water is gorgeous. both the tasman sea and the pacific. just beautiful. the weather was perfect too. just breezes, not strong winds. made for very calm waters.

get off your ass!

live the dream!

cape reinga isn't the most northern tip of new zealand, that one is 5km away. but, it's the one with a road to it so it just gets known as the most northern tip because you can access it easily.

km and nautical miles, but still not regular miles

after cape reinga, we went to have lunch and a swim at tapotupotu bay (pacific). it was nice. then we went to the giant sand dunes at 90 mile beach, then cruised down 90 mile beach (tasman). let me tell you about the sand dunes. the kiwis have invented a sport for it. you ride a body board down the sand dunes. some people call it sand tobogganing. something like that. anyway, that was some climb. i did it twice. once for the digital camera. once for the video camera. i was afraid of an asthma attack. more than anything, that dune let me know how out of shape i am. but what a ride down! i can't wait to review the footage.

the sand dunes are huuuuuge - black flecks on the right in the middle are people!

the ride down 90 mile beach was cool but it got boring due to repetition. it's not really 90 miles, almost 90 kilometers. we went almost the entire 90 km. we stopped to take some pictures and put our feet in the water. the water was nice. it's all just gorgeous up here. on the way back, we stopped at a shop/cafe called ancient kauri kingdom where they sell carved kauri goods for lots of $. one of the staircases is carved out of a single kauri tree. not the entire tree, just a part of it. it's huge. redwoods are bigger though. you can carve a tunnel for cars to pass through. i can't wait to see a huge live kauri in person.

during the drive there and back, we saw many farms and on them were cows, sheep, and even some turkey. in the evening, we used the jacuzzi spa at the hostel. nice. the best part of centabay lodge.

you learn something new everyday: the manuka tree is famous over here for the honey from the bees make from its flowers but it is also known as the tree from which tea tree oil comes from.