I CHALLENGE YOU TO FIND SOMEONE WHO WON'T APPRECIATE PAIHIA -
I don't tend to have any affiliation with yogurt but the Breakfast of Champions: yogurt, muesli and raspberry coulis from Cellini's ice cream was YUM. A little look out over the town was still paradise in unjoyful weather and helpful for me to find my bearings.
A tour operator enticed me to take a 3 hour afternoon sightseeing of Kerikeri, a touristy destination as the biggest town this end of the country. 'Kerikeri so nice they named it twice, I did appreciate this corny rhyme thrown out by our shuttle driver. Starting out at the Matakana Boutique Chocolate Factory suited me just fine; the rows upon rows of milk chocolatey goodies welcomed me but the price put me off. We sampled beautifully intense chocolate brittle and a vanilla truffle whilst seeing the staff at work with all their gadgets and doodads. Pigged out on a gourmet chocolate éclair of decadence to die for, from the chocolate café attached to the factory store. A full-length, girly, floral mirror in the bathroom warranted vanity from a selfie!
At the Ake Ake Vineyard, I could not participate in the tasting as they just had wine, not grape juice to offer the non-drinkers. Nothing pretty was growing in the vineyard at this time of year so it was a waste of time and my expenses. I wore my displeasure like a fur coat. On the way back, our driver stopped for us to have photos at Haruru Falls ('big noise' in Maori) - an unusual horseshoe-shaped falls where a water monster is said to live in the lagoon below. Paihia doesn't completely suck in the rain as there was a mini rainbow shimmering through the river .
In my dorm, I met Brooke from LA who had also been living in Auckland doing an internship; we got on well so went to Sauce for garlic knots and Blondie pizza with the adventurous topping of potato!! The friendly owner came to talk to us at length leading to long chats there.
On Tuesday, it was bucketing down again when we rose with the 'lark' at 6.30am to be the first picked up on our Explore Dune Rider Day tour to Cape Reinga. It proved tricky to slumber as our guide and driver, Daniel boomed into the mic sporadically, leaving it on in between commentary so we heard his heavy breathing. We didn't stop to hug the Tane Mahuta, Lord of the forest tree although it was supposed to be on our agenda so I was miffed to say the least!
Kauri Kingdom was the first stop for a hot choc brekkie; I'm always about a chocolat petit dejeuner! For a roadside caff, it was top notch! The showroom and outlet has a staircase which has become a star attraction in its own right for it was 'carved from a 50 tonne section of 1 giant swamp Kauri log' thought to be 45-50,000 years old and weighing 140 tonnes. It's quite magnificent!
Brooke and I had a fab road trip up to the tippy top of Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of Aotearoa, passing: Camel Rock - originally mistaken by Capt James Cook for a desert, Doubtless Bay - a beach paradise with a name originating from Cook's observation in 1769 'doubtless to say, this is definitely a bay' as well as lush vegetation, wetland flora and a rocky coastline on the way up. Wild horses and flowers abound from end to end of this scraggy wilderness with sheep as far as the eye could see - 20,000 in number just from 3 farms we drove through, or so a very reliable source expounded.
The Cape is regarded to be 'the most spiritually significant place in NZ' for Maoris as it is the terminus from which spirits of the deceased head home after leaping from an ancient 800 year old Pohutukawa tree. 'Te Reinga' a rocky point is where legend has it the spirits enter the underworld via steps formed by the tree roots before journeying onto their final resting place in Hawaiki.
We made it to Cape Reinga before most of the tour buses but were only given 40 minutes in windy, jacket-inflating conditions. It was slightly unnerving as the force of the gust nearly blew me off the cliff top and I want to articulate to all how INSANE that was! I was impressed that the area is unspoilt in its beauty with no commercialism, souvenir shops or the like. As it was a bit misty, we were unable to see out to 3 Kings Island, a sanctuary for wildlife jewels such as lizards and land snails.
There is a clear division where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean known as 'The Meeting Point' with a collision of turbulent waters. One body of water is thought to be male and the other female; its whirlpools represent the creation of life. I was transfixed by the splendour of the northernmost part of NZ and the aesthetically pleasing, shimmering seas. The photogenic lighthouse was installed in 1879, has a 1000 watt bulb which can be spotted 35km out at sea and is now managed by a computer in Wellington.
Te Paki Giant Sand Dunes are ever shifting and some as steep and high as 140 metres, they let our group be silly when sandboarding. I had great difficulty in scaling up them as my feet would sink into the sand while carrying my board; I'm not sure why I was so completely useless at that. Daniel gave a quick demo instructing everyone to keep our elbows on the board and stick toes in the sand in order to slow down and then we were off!
My first go was not so graceful as I came down with legs spread eagled and made a splash headfirst into the water AND ATE SAND but embraced it fully when I realised there was no stopping the inevitable. The whole group agreed that I for sure had the slide of the day; good luck one upping that, dudes!! It could be the best sand board ride since .. EVER. I felt as though I'd won a gold medal. I don't normally excel at these things but it is one of the most fun things I've done in my 31 years of living despite being terrible at it in every way. My second attempt I zoomed down from midway as I didn't have the energy to reach the top. Although, I couldn't mount the sand board from a headlong angle and had to be rescued by our tour leader, who held it down so I could leap on. Mildly embarrassing to say the least but it was a massively fun chunk of time!
As the Te Paki stream was too shallow from little rainfall (I would have brought up bucket loads from Paihia had I known!) the bus didn't have the capability to ride though the stream as it usually can. Lunch was not in the form of our promised fush n' chups (Fish and chips - to non-Kiwis) but a spread of: sausages, steak, bread and various salads had been cooked up for us. Nor was it a scenic location as we were lunching at a sports recreation centre. The tucker wasn't horrible but neither was it what I wanted or desired.
Again, because of the lack of water, we had to access 90 Mile Beach by way of a different entry point. Really, this enormously popular, tourist trap measures only 65 miles in length and was the main highway there for ages. There is a speeding limit for driving suitable vehicles onto the beach and driving regulations to abide by as police patrol it. We know this for fact as we had front row seats to a police car chase.
DORKING OUT ON THE BEACH -
Brooke and I had to dip our toes into the reflective ocean, luke warm in temperature. Others copied and that is when the tide came at us so we were all running back to shore but could not escape a small soaking and it was just lovely! I felt super liberated. Blast the wretched wind wrecking my jump shots; these sorts of pictures make me act like a complete idiot but the results are generally worth it. I just want to verify that it's a cool, goodlooking stretch of sand and I miss basking in the sunshine on the amazingly surreal beaches of New Zealand.
Back in the bus to race against the tide - this has to be timed just right or you'll drift out to sea. I bet many tourists are caught out by this! After the bus was washed down at Kauri Kingdom, we were delivered back to Paihia two hours premature to the schedule so I reckon things were missed out and our day was unfairly caught short. All in all, everything felt very rushed during our outing so it would have been nicer without time constraints and if we'd been given the full low down upfront.
Movenpick ice cream, you never let me down. Your crème brulee flavour= smashing!! Chased the sunset with Brooke up at Waitangi Golf Course, catching glimpses of the peach shades before cloud shrouded it from view. The sounds of trickling water by the rocks were soothing but I was intent on not walking over the rocks. Itchy sand fly bites helped us commemorate the dusk :( My Instagram account gets more and more phenomenal with every image I upload from my trips.
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