Bay of Islands, North island, NZ, amazing place.

Apologies in advance for writing this in 'American Pie one time at bandcamp style' but i'm tired and hungover in a place called Nelson at the moment in the South Island where i arrived earlier today... below is a round up of my north island experience, let me know any comments and i'll be sure to delete them... ho ho ho

Bay of Islands (30th April start)

7am came around quickly enough and i boarded the kiwi experience bus leaving Auckland. I looked over and started speaking to this little geeky guy called Benji (that was really his name...) as he looked like he was itching to speak to someone... he was a nice enough little geek and i ended up playing sh1t head (cards) for the next 4 hours on the bus with him whilst he taught me the rules, and listening to his endless stories of sky diving and bungy jumps. When we arrived in the bay of islands I roomed with him and a group of 4 older paddy ladies (late 30's i reckon...).

First day we got there i decided to give the speed boat island tour a go as i liked the sound of 'excitor tour' to the hole in the rock. It was good fun and met a whole bunch of people who i subsequently ended up getting drunk with later that night... Was cool to see all the islands, but the boat was not that scary but woke me up a bit! After the speed boat we just chilled in a little bar / cafe overlooking the beach and islands and had a couple of 'Tui' beers.. was sweet as. The next day we said goodbye to the old ladies and me and Benji headed for a Kiwi day trip up to Cape Reigna, this was a good decision... surfed down giant sand dunes and went right to the top of north island, where the Pacific oceon meets the Tasman Sea, that was cool, we drove down a beach called 90 mile beach which is actually a lot less than that, something like 50 miles.. that was pretty sweet and well worth the trip, saw a few penguins up close and wild on the beach. So far the weather is sweet, warm and sunny. Once returned from Cape Reigna we found we had swapped 4 old irish ladies for 4 18-22 year old girls which was sweet!! not in that kind of way.. we got blind drunk with them and i watched Benji spout his geeky lines to them in a bid to pull, it was fecking hilarious! Random night, hurt the next day.. the chiks and Benji were my first real frineds made over here, and were a good crack.

The next day Benji went back to Auckland to fly Mexico, so i decided to go fishing, jumped on a boat with some local fisherman (80 bucks it cost...) and headed out to see. The oceon was rough but it was sweet, I was catching quite a few king fish and Snappers, then an hour or so in I hooked into a fish and proceeded to bring it in when suddenly it got a lot heavier!! A bloody 60 pound shark took my snapper and gave me a hell of a fight for about 45 mins before bringing it on board, getting a picture, then chucking it back, was dam cool and mellow, the sun was shining and i caught a god dam shark...

On returning to the dorm the 4 chiks (2 called Jess, 2 called Kate which was random..) thought i was dead, as no-one had seen me all day, i went on to describe my 200 pound shark before hitting the local bar for a BBQ and Tui!

I left the girls here and proceeded back to Auckland the next day. It was rainy and dinghy outside and i was heading back to the wonderful Auckland... that night fire alrms went off all night and the place was hectic as, rain was pouring, and i mean properly pouring. I doormed with a few French guys who were very amusing, and went and had a beer with a cool Aussie guy called Glenn.

Overall i recommend the Bay of islands / Cape Reigna highly, one of my favourite places so far for sure.