Bay of Islands & Cape Reinga

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I have actually gone slightly out of chronological sequence here as I actually started my trip up to Paihia from Snells Beach (where Mike & Becky live). Being an hour North of Auckland  where they lived was en route to the Bay of Islands so there was no point going back on myself by returning to Auckland first. It turned out that the Kiwi Experience Bus passed nearby at place called Warkworth so Michael dropped me off there where I met the tour group at a cafe just outside the town. It was funny as turned out that Mike knew the bus driver from his student days so they had good chat before we set off. The drive up to Paihia was pretty easy only took a few hours with one or two breaks on route. The weather also improved as the day progressed and it was lovely weather by the time we arrived. Along with a number of other people on the bus I had signed up for some jetboating in Paihia so did that in the afternoon which was really fun. It was also a really nice day so got some good views too! The hostel had a barbecue on in the evening to that was a good way to get to know some of the people on the bus and afterwards everyone stayed in the bar for a while for a few drinks.

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The following day had a 7am start as was taking a day trip from Paihia up to Cape Reinga, which is at the very northern tip of New Zealand. It was a really fun day as although there was a fair bit of a drive up there, we stopped at some interesting places along the way and saw the massive Kauri trees which can now only be found in that part of New Zealand. The bus driver we had was also very much a character so made the day quite entertaining! There were lots of nice walks we did and also the coach drove along 90 mile beach, which was cool although felt very odd driving along a quiet beach! After that we went to the sand dunes to have a go at sand boarding which was a lot of fun but hard work climbing up so i was happy just to have one go!We had lunch at a beach and then started journey back stopping off again at few different places, the final stop being for some fish & chips!