Extreme Sand Boarding!!!

On route to 90 mile beach!
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19.02.06

We went to the North end of 90 mile beach to the huge 90m sand dunes at the Tepaki reserve. It was a bit surreal driving through rolling countryside to come over a hill and sea bright white 90m high sand dunes! We picked up our body boards and headed for the nearest dune for some "extreme sand boarding". After a couple of practice runs we went to the biggest sloep which had a 200m run. It was wicked!!!

...and thermal hot pools!!

Wicked!!!
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We then headed right to the top of the North Island to Cape Reinga. This is where the Tasman sea meets the pacific ocean. There’s some great views and we saw the 800 year old pohutukawa tree who’s roots hide the entrance to the mythical Maori underworld.

20.02.06

We made our way south to Waitemo, switching vans on the way due to a leaking waste tank!

21.02.06

It was a long way down!!
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We visited the Waitemo glow worm caves. Our tour guide was the great grandaughter who discovered the cave along with the english surveyor Fred mace. Glow worms can only be found in NZ and four states of Australia. It was v.cool floating through the pitch black cave whilst the glow worms gave the illusion of stars all around. We did a short walk through the Waitemo reserve & took a look at a natural limestone bridge. We carried on to Rotorua in the evening, famed for its thermal geysers.

Jess in action!
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22.02.06

We went to the Wai a tapu thermal park. It has the largest surface area of thermal activity in the region. .We saw lots of boiling springs and bubbling mud pools. All of which gave off a really bad egg smell due to the sulphur deposits and gases. Some of the pools had exciting colouring due to the minerals that had been deposited there.

After lunch we headed to Kerosene creek. The water that runs through it is naturally heated to 40c by magma left over from previous volcanic eruptions. Due to the temperature it cannot sustain any aquatic life which meant "Damian" was happy to dive in. It was really cool, or rather, hot!! Just like stepping into a hot bath, with its own waterfall!!