Glorious sun and endless beaches in New Zealand
Sunday, March 9, 07:10 (our itinerary)
We’re down to our last week now, and have mixed feelings about that. We both miss our home, our family and our friends, but we are really going to miss New Zealand – the land and the people. The weather has turned gorgeous, with temperatures hitting about 24, and we’re passing by (and dipping into) a seemingless endless line of spectacular beaches. We’re sticking to back roads whenever possible – going 100 km/h among lots of other vehicles is not our idea of a good explore.
Our first major stop once we got off the motorway that took us through greater Auckland was the Goat Island Marine Reserve, where we finally got our snorkel gear wet (that’s Cathy in the picture below). This is a great diving/snorkelling location, with lots of large fish coming almost within reach (though illegal, apparently they get fed by many swimmers). We also took one of the better tour deals in the country, a 45-minute trip around the island in a glass-bottomed boat, for $20 pp. The captain, Ian, is passionate about the reserve and was great to travel with.
I’m getting a fair number of bird photos – these as-yet-unidentified birds were right at the parking lot at Goat Island.
We had planned on only staying one night at Pakiri Beach, a few minutes from Goat Island, but added another night, so after a morning trip to the reserve had a fabulous afternoon of doing nothing but laying on the beach. We thought about taking a horse ride on the beach as the people in the photo are doing, but were in super lazy mode – it was great playing in the surf here with nobody else around, though.
Below is Whangerei Falls, a wonderful little park that has been ruined by vandals – even the trees along the walking paths have been spray-painted with garbage. We’ve been surprised and disappoined by the amount of litter and graffiti, especially in the regions that have a heavy Maori population. From talking to “Joe Average Kiwi”, it appears that the Native situation here is pretty much the same as at home. 🙁
Meeting more locals – this happened twice in a few miles around dinner time yesterday 🙂
We’re now at the Top 10 Holiday Park in Russell for 2, or maybe even 3 days if the beach behind is turns out to be great. Today is going to be long – a 6-hour boat tour and swim-with-dolphins trip, and then a dinner cruise that gets rave reviews.
I’m beginning to look forward to getting home and reliving the trip a few times through our photos and journal notes and then posting a detailed journal. [the detailed journal is now posted here]
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