12. December 2013
Today we left Russell, unfortunately leaving Hayzybobzykins who would be starting her job there the next day. To clarify things I just drew myself a map of where we went, though it does not really show well online… SOZ. Google map it. (Up the east coast, up to the very tip, down the west coast.)
Anyways, the plan for today was Russell-Kaitaia, Kaitaia-Cape Reinga, Cape Reinga-Kaitaia. Cape Reinga is the most northern point of NZ, so quite exciting. But lots to go through before that…
On our way to Kaitaia, we stopped at a few gorgeous sites. Haruru Falls and Rainbow Falls, as well as the gorgeous Cooper’s Beach on Doubtless Bay.
I love how easy it is to go anywhere in NZ. For example, the first falls, Haruru, you could easily just go and jump into the falls if you so desired, there were no fences/safety regulations etc. People trust you not to be stupid. I experienced the same thing on our dolphin excursion, since we were on the front of the boat for most of the time. Sometimes we were standing, and the railing around is quite low – I sat down at some point for fear of being jolted off. No one ever advised against standing, peoples’ common sense was trusted. I think that’s really cool.
Anyways, we got to Kaitaia. The lunch of chicken n avocado sarnies was scrumptious, but otherwise Kaitaia was quite an unpleasant town. A highstreet full of boring/cheap shops, nothing interesting really. I have found a few NZ towns quite ‘monotonous’, often just a highstreet with shops and cafés in a long line next to each other. But Kaitaia was especially not very nice.
We checked into our motel/hotel/whatever it is, then headed off for Cape Reinga.
An unbelievable afternoon. The 1½ hour drive there was amazing, through very, very ‘natural’ scenery (sorry, lacking correct adjectives today). No towns or habitation, just trees, grass, mountains.
According to Wikipedia, ‘reinga’ means ‘underworld’ in Maori. Well, it is a sort of eery place filled with Maori legends about spirits departing from the world. At the start of the path to the lighthouse at the end of the land it was written that if you could please refrain from eating and drinking to respect this.
A short walk down the paths to the lighthouse, photos at the lighthouse, incredulating about how far away London is (ok, not incredulating, we know very well it is quite far away), and then back to the car.
Then it was time to go check out the sand dunes. Earlier I had asked about what that white stuff far away is, and to my surprise CC replied it was sand dunes. Didn’t expect that…And, well, they were epic. Car parked, we got out without our shoes, crossed the water to get to the sand, and started walking on the sand. At the beginning it was flat, but we soon got to the first dune. We watched a pair of guys bodyboard down it (lie on your stomach on a surf-board type thing (if not a surf-board)), looked epic fun!! But we skipped the bodyboards, and just climbed up.
I guess since I hadn’t expected massive sand dunes in NZ AT ALL, and since I’ve never experienced anything like that before, I was in some sort of euphoria at the top. CC insisted on going onwards but I stopped at some point and was just lying in the sand waiting for him to return and felt so unbelievably…….. I dunno, I can tell you I have never done drugs but I could imagine the “nice” feelings of drug use could be similar to how I felt then. EPICCCC and a bit buzzy.
Running down sand dunes is one of the best things in the world. So much fun.
Lots of love,
Emmmmzzzzyyyy
xxxxx
PS. Lesson of the day: The road is indeed the best place to feed your baby.
Sand dunes – epic. Beaches – amazing. Towns – epicätön & amazingätön. Excellent photos. Interesting Maori history & culture.
Emma-Liisukkaiseni!
Mahtavia kuvia! Minua yllätti, että Uudesta-Seelannista voi löytyä jotakin epämiellyttävää, niin kuin kuvasit sitä yhtä kaupunkia. Ehkä siinä on jotakin, mitä ylläolevassa kommentissa sanotaan: ihmisen tekemä ei ole luonnon veroista.
Ihana lehmä vasikoineen. Kiinnostavaa kuulla maoreista enemmän. Täytyypä katsastaa, millainen heidän kielensä on. Luulisi, että se on sukua Aussien aboriginaalikielille. Haleja mumsieltasi!