Post breakfast, we were in the car and driving further up north! By 09:00, we were on our way and it was already getting warm!
We drove 1.5 hours up north to get to Te Paki stream. Here, in the middle of nowhere, there are giant sand dunes! Kim had read online that you can rent a ‘sandboard’ and go sandboarding on the dunes.
Once we arrived, we got ourselves a couple of sandboards and headed up the dunes. We were advised to go right to the highest dune to get a great view and then slide back down, which is what we did. What we didn’t realise was how incredible steep all of the dunes are and the effort it takes to get to the top, including getting sand blown in your face all the time!
Kim struggling with the dune!
We did get some amazing views at the top of the highest dune, which we soaked in whilst we relaxed after the tiresome climb!
The first sandboard down looked very high but wasn’t very fast at all.
We then went down the next hill, which was smaller but had way more speed and was great fun!
Luckily, as we were leaving, the sun got much warmer, so it was the perfect timing!
We had a drink and then drove from here to Cape Reinga, which is the top most point of New Zealand. Once we got here, we parked and walked down to the lighthouse, seeing the amazing views on the way. Apparently, two different oceans combine at this point also, which is what we assume the waves in the middle of the sea are!
We walked back to the car after seeing the lighthouse and drove to a beach over a gravel road, which took a while! The beach was called spirits bay and it was beautiful! We sat and ate our homemade ham, beef, cheese & salad sandwiches and then got back to the car to drive back to the apartment.
We chilled out for a while whilst we recovered from our tiredness and then we got back in the car and drove to the town to find food. We got a kebab each, which was an odd thing to choose but was delicious!
We watched a cabin restoration TV show and some other TV and then got packed up to leave tomorrow morning.
Poroporoaki!
– Mr & Mrs Hale
Mr & Mrs Hale 