Back in the U.S.S.A.

Jenna:  After our sledging adventures we drove north toward Auckland in hopes of finding a nice family to adopt our van, Sake.  We'd had a post on trademe.co.nz (NZ's version of Craigslist) for about a week with nothing but Chinese people wanting to buy the van for more than we were asking, sight unseen, and have us to ship it to Asia.  Not the most subtle scam on the internet!  We knew our best chance for unloading Sake was at one of Auckland's two weekend car fairs.  Being near the end of the summer down under, most people are heading out of the country with not nearly as many buyers arriving.  We knew the competition would be tough, but also that Sake was a champion thoroughbred compared to most of the dilapidated, spray-painted backpacker vans for sale.  We had the asking price jacked up on Saturday to test the market and no takers.  At the much bigger Sunday car fair we dropped our asking price and attracted the attention of a Canadian couple who razzed us about their Olympic hockey victory before agreeing to take Sake off our hands.  Damn canucks!  We didn't make  money on the van, but what we spent was ridiculously less expensive than renting a car or a campervan for even a few weeks.  Yay us!  We now had 10 days to enjoy a car-free vacation in the last unexplored corner of New Zealand.... Northland.

Packing up all our stuff before saying goodbye to Sake.

Rob and I booked a tour of Northland with the Stray bus company, which would let us hop on and off at a few key stops.  They picked us up from Auckland bright and early on Tuesday with about 12 others.  Our first stop was a glass-bottom boat tour at the Goat Island Marine Reserve.  The tour greatly exceeded our low expectations and we got to see kelp forests, giant snapper, a crayfish (lobster) and lots of other swimming things.  We also stopped at an 800-year-old Kauri tree.  The giant trees used to cover Northland, but have been almost eradicated by logging.  The bus dropped us off in the large town of Whangarei (pronounced fung-ah-ray, I swear they make these pronunciations up to mess with the tourists) for two nights at the Whangarei Falls Holiday Park.  The town didn't have much to offer, but it was our gateway to the Poor Knights Islands, which we visited the next day for a scuba trip.

View from the glass-bottom boat.

Eight hundred year old Kauri tree.  

Rob at work on the grill at Whangarei Falls Holiday Park.  Delish!

Jacques Cousteau rated the Poor Knights as one of the top ten dive sights in the world, and they definitely lived up to their reputation!  Rob did a Discover Scuba, a crash course in equipment and safety before they tossed him off the edge of the boat and let him sink.  After adjusting to the initial weird feeling of breathing underwater, he had a really good time.  I had to do a refresher dive with an instructor since I hadn't been in 5 years!  Seriously, where does the time go?  I was glad the company suggested a refresher though, since the usual Kiwi attitude toward adventure sports is jump first, ask questions later or never.  We did two dives - the first a colorful cave system and the second at a kelp forest with lots of fish.  The islands are a marine reserve so the fish had no fear of divers, coming right up close and personal!  We also saw some big sting rays.  It was such an awesome day... one of the best experiences in New Zealand!

Suited up and ready to take the plunge.

Don't I look professional?

The next day we continued on the bus to Paihia, the main holiday town in Northland, packed with every kind of accommodation you could imagine.  We had to call it an early night at the Pickled Parrot Backpackers because we were getting up at the crack of dawn (again) for a tour to Cape Reinga - the northernmost point in New Zealand.  It's also where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.  Pretty cool seeing two oceans clash together. 

Riding shotgun in the big rig tour bus.

Meeting of the seas - Tasman on the left, Pacific on the right.

After the Cape we stopped at the head of 90 Mile Beach, which stretches 64 miles down the west coast from the Cape.  Ninety mile just has a better ring to it, doesn't it?  Time for another Kiwi favorite... sand boarding!  Our bus driver handed us a boogie board and sent us climbing up a giant sand dune.  After huffing and puffing our way to the top, we got to ride the boards down on our bellies.  Got a bit of sand in the hair... and the teeth... and down the pants, but it was a blast.  The bus then drove the full length of the beach on the sand before dropping us back in Paihia.  With 400+km round trip it was a looong day, but a good time.

Train up the sand dune.

Rob flying down the dune.

 Think he's having a good time?

Jeans got a little wet on that run.  Oops!

 90 Mile Beach.  Kiwis like to exaggerate... it's only 64 miles long!

Our last free day in Pahia we took a quick ferry to Russell, previously known as the 'Hell Hole of the Pacific' due to lawlessness, prostitution, and some gnarly pirate activity I can only imagine.  But now it's a cute little harbor town.  We made it back to Paihia for happy hour and I cooked a very spicy dinner back at the hostel.  Guess that cayenne really works!  Sunday morning we went for a two hour horse ride before catching the bus back to Auckland.  It was nice, but not the most exciting thing we've done in New Zealand.  Rob almost fell asleep on his horse.

Happy hour at Makos, overlooking the harbor.  Time in New Zealand is coming quickly to an end!

Heading back to Auckland meant at long last our New Zealand adventure was coming to an end!  We tied up all our loose ends, closed our bank accounts, and caught the bus to the airport on Tuesday morning.  I'm was really sad to be leaving NZ... really sad the trip is over... but ready to go 'home' to Las Vegas.  Now it's back to job searching instead of searching for a place to park the van for the night.

International flights are so much better than domestic... free movies, free TV, free drinks!

Catching a few winks between movies.

We are back in Vegas now, but stay tuned!  We'll have a few more NZ posts to make covering fascinating topics such as ornithology and Kiwi lifestyle.  I know I'm leaving you all on the edges of your seats....